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HE  BLACK  BEAR 

of  Pennsylvania 


(Vrsus  Americanus) 


Compiled  by  Henry  W.  Shoemaker 

With  Chapters  by  John  C.   French 
AuJior  of  "The  Passenger  Pigeon  In  Pennsylvania" 


Altoona 

Published  bj  the  Time*  Tribune  Company 
Copyright,  1921,  All  Rightt  Reserved 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/blackbearofpennsOOshoerich 


Edwin  Grimes  and  Son,  Edwin,  Jr. 
(Frontispiece) 


The  Black  Bear 

of  Pennsylvania 

(Ursus  Americanus^ 


Compiled  by 
Henry  W.  Shoemaker 

With  Chapters  by 
John  C.  French 

Author  of  "The  Passenger  Pigeon  in  Pennsylvania' 


''The  Bear  is  capable  of  some 
degree  of  instruction,  there  are  few 
but  have  seen  it  dance  in  awkward 
measure  upon  its  hind  feet,  to  the 
voice  or  instrument  of  its  leader;  and 
it  must  be  confessed,  that  the  dancer  is 
is  often  found  to  be  the  best  performer 
of  the  two.  I  am  told  that  it  is  first 
taught  to  perform  in  this  manner  by 
setting  it  upon  hot  plates  of  iron  and 
then  playing  to  it  while  in  this  uneasy 
situation." — Oliver  Goldsmith 


Altoona 

Published  by  the  Times  Tribune  Company 
Copyright,  1921,  AU  Rights  Reserved 


v\ 


,  -    -i 


To 


Hon.  William  C.  Sproul 

Governor  of  Pennsylvania 

Lover  of  All  Outdoor    Sports  and  Fair  Play 

With  Whom  the  Case  of  Ursus  Americanus  Rests 

These  Pages  Are  Respectfully  Dedicated 


468537 


Index 


Frontispiece 

Introduction         --_--__ 

The  Alusquaw  or  Black  Bear    -         -         -         - 

A  Few  Sidelights  on  Bears  _         .         _         _ 

Jake  Zimmerman's  Reminiscences 
Reminiscences  by  Henry  Wren      -         -         - 
Mr.  Karstetter's  Views  -         - 

Bear  Stories  by  E.  A.  Schwenk     -         -         - 
Bear  Facts  from  Pennsylvania  Newspapers 

A  Queer  Bear  Trap     -         -         -         -         - 

Says  He  Saw  White  Faced  Bear  in  Woods 
Took  Bear  for  Rock  _         _         _         _ 

Treed  Four  Hours  by  Bears      -         -         - 
Charles    Slutterbeck    Kills    26'5-lb.    Bear    in 

Cornfield        -         -         - 
Boy  Alone  in  Woods  Kills  503-lb.  Bruin    - 
Bear  Plays  High  Jinks  _         _         .         . 

Columbia  County  Boy,  18,  Kills  250-lb.  Bear 
First  Bear  of  Season  Shot  in  Seven  Moun- 
tains -----_ 

"Lew"  Fosnot's  Memories    -         -         ■         - 
Big  Bear  Killed  by  Plunters  Near  Olean  in 

Jim  Jacobs'  Old  Hunting  Country 
More  from  Jake  Zimmerman       _         _         _ 
"Poody"  Lovett's  Bear      -         _         -         _ 
Last  Bear  in  Blue  Mountains        _         _         _ 
Linglestown  Man  Has  Hot  Fight  with  Large 
Bear  ------ 

Bears  in  Somerset  County  in  Years  Past 

Game  Law  Revision  a  Delicate  Task 

Best  Bear  Story  ______ 


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31 

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Introduction 

"All  wondered  that  in  peace  I  took  my  rest — 
That,  all  unharmed  by  deadly  snake  or  bear, 
My  tender  body  lay  unconscious  there." 

— Quintus  Horatius  Flaccus. 

IT  is  a  great  pleasure  to  present  the  story  of  the 
Musquaw,  or  Black  Bear  of  Pennsylvania,  from 
the  gifted  pen  of  Mr,  John  C.  French,  premier  nat- 
urahst  of  Northern  Pennsylvania,  with  chapters  con- 
tribu^ted  by  sudi  observing  woodsmen  and  nature 
lovers  as  Jacob  W.  Zimmerman,  Daniel  Mark,  A.  D. 
Karstetter  'and  others.  These  pages  contain,  in  con- 
densed form,  a  reasonably  complete  record  of  the 
habits  and  customs,  appearance  and  folk  lore  of  the 
Black  Bear,  as  well  as  some  of  the  achievements  of 
the  men  who  have  hunted  bitni.  An  animal  of  such 
unique  and  curious  interest  deserves  protection,  and 
it  is  to  be  regretted  that  selfish  minded  persons  seek 
■to  use  him  to  divert  attention  from  the  depredations 
made  on  live  stock*  by  half  wild,  unlicensed  dogs. 
Pennsylvania  set  a  noteworthy  example  to  the  whole 
world  of  sport  by  protecting  bears  and  forbidding 
the  use  of  steel  traps  and  bear  pens.  This  law  was 
passed  in  1915,  at  a  time  v/hen  the  Black  Bear  of 
Pennsylvania  was  on  the  verge  of  extinction,  from 
wholesale  trapping  at  all  times  of  the  year.  For 
example,  the  "Democrat",  of  Lock  Haven,  Clinton 
County,  in  1901,  told  of  a  family  of  hunters  residing 
at  Shinto wn,  in  that  County,  Tripp  by  name,  who  had 
trapped  six  bears  that  Autumn.       Bears  would  soon 


pass  out  if  that  rate  was  allowed  to  continue  in- 
definitely. Another  danger  now  confronts  the  bear 
tribe,  lack  of  food  supply.  TTiis  was  threatened  by 
repeated  forest  fires  desolating  their  favorite  feeding 
grounds,  but  now,  even  in  the  most  favored  localities, 
the  chestnut  blight  has  rennoved  one  of  the  chief 
sources  of  their  fall  diet.  It  is  hoped  that  hunters 
wmII  not  wage  any  systematic  warfare  on  bears,  either 
in  fact  or  by  propaganda,  and  that  'the  present  wise 
game  laws  protecting  them  will  hold  in  force  in- 
definitely. Pennsylvania  cannot  afford  to  reverse  her- 
self by  turning  the  bears  over  to  the  mercy  of  the  pot 
hunters,  as  will  be  the  case  if  the  Wells  Bill  should 
become  law.  The  compiler's  thanks  are  due  to  the 
hunters  and  naturalists  who  have  made  their  store  of 
information  available  for  reproduction  on  the  ensuing 
pages.  Their  experience,  varied  and  remarkable  as 
it  has  been,  will  prove  of  interest  to  all  who  love  the 
great  out-doors  and  honest,  manly  sport.  May  the 
shadow  of  Musquaw  never  grow  less  except  on 
Candlemas  Day ! 

Henry  W.  Shoemaker. 

1923  Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia. 
Lincoln's  Birthday,  1921. 


The  Musquaw,  or  Black  Bear 

Ursus  Americanus 
By  John  C.  French,  Roulette,  Potter  County 

SECTION  I 

"There  are  beasts  in  these  mountains 
More  hard  to  ensnare, 
And  more  dangerous,  too. 
Than  the  wolf  or  the  bear." 

No;  we  do  not  mean  the  "moonshiners"  plying 
their  "inalienable"  avocation;  but  only  the  degenerate 
cur  dogs  that  have  learned  to  kill  sheep.  Mendel's 
law  of  descent  illustrates  the  atavistic  principles  that 
govern  the  primogenature  of  beings  produced  from 
cross-breeding  and  unregulated  in-breeding  of  all 
domestic  "animals. 

The  dog  has  developed  from  being  a  near-cousin 
to  the  wolf,  and  has  become  the  reliable  protector  of 
man  and  guardian  of  our  treasured  flocks  and  herds. 
But  many  curs,  pressed  by  the  pangs  of  hunger,  lack 
stamina  and  character  to  long  resist  the  wolfiish  inher- 
itance, which  is,  "slay  and  eat".  Therefore,  the  cur 
dog  kills  our  sheep,  in  his  lust  for  blood — his  inherit- 
ance since  the  creation  of  the  world. 

The  gray  wolf  is  ex-tinct  in  Pennsylvania ;  for  many 
years  he  was  the  alibi  for  outlaw  dogs.  The  black 
bear  now  serves  as  the  alibi  for  the  destructive  dogs, 
in  a  vast  number  of  instances. 


11 


12  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

When  a  black  bear  kills  a  sheep,  he  does  it  in  a  bold 
and  a  business-like  niianner,  for  food,  eats  and  departs 
like  a  philosopher.  True,  he  may  return  when  hungry 
and  select  another  sheep  for  his  repast,  continuing 
to  repeat  the  process  for  some  weeks;  but  he  kills 
only  enough  for  his  need,  and  never  destroys  wan- 
tonly for  sjx)rt  or  pastime,  as  dogs  do. 

Again,  while  bruin  lingers  in  the  vicinity  of  sheep, 
none  of  them  is  in  danger  from  ravages  of  the  outlaw 
dogs,  for  these  cowards  keep  away  from  bears,  and 
avoid  'the  trail  of  a  ibear.  They  are  careful  to  observe 
the  dictates  of  their  creed! 

As  insect  destroyers  bears  are  of  prime  importance 
to  the  maturing  forest,  and  they  are  of  economic  value 
to  preserve  the  balance  designed  by  the  Creator.  So 
we  design  to  introduce  our  bear  and  describe  his  char- 
acter. Then,  farther  along,  we  shall  show  his  soul 
before  your  eyes,  as  it  has  been  seen  by  his  human 
friends  in  the  forests,  from  the  days  that  "Grand- 
father Bear"  befriended  Redmen  who  sought  advice, 
'to  our  own  times. 

"The  spirit  of  man  came  upon  earth  and  sought 
the  bear  for  advice:  Ho,  grandfather,  our  children 
have  no  'bodies !  The  bear  then  sent  them  to  the 
pigeon  for  incarnation." 

The  Musquaw  or  Bla:ck  Bear,  (Ursus  Americanus), 
is  native  of  Pennsylvania  and  Canada  and  most 
of  the  other  States  of  the  Union.  In  the  far  west 
a  brown  variety  of  the  same  species  is  found. 
In  gait  the  animal  is  plantigrade,  and  is  capable  of 


m 


OTIS  J.  P.  LYMAN 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  13 

lifting  itself  on  its  great  hind  feet  and  of  remaining 
erect  with  the  greatest  ease.  When  attacked  in 
close  contact,  it  rears  up  and  strikes  terrific  blows 
with  its  fore-^aws,  which  often  cause  dreadful  in- 
juries to  its  antagonist. 

The  bear's  paws  are  armed  with  long,  sharp  talons 
which  are  not  capable  of  reaction,  but  which  tear 
through  the  flesh  and  are  most  efficient  weapons  of 
offense  when  urged  by  the  powerful  muscles  which 
give  force  to  the  bear's  body  and  limbs. 

Should  the  adversary  elude  the  quick,  heavy  blows 
of  the  paws,  the  bear  endeavors  to  seize  the  foe 
around  the  body  and"  by  pressure  to  overcome  its 
enemy.  In  guarding  itself  from  blows  aimed  at  itself 
the  bear  is  adroit  and  wards  off  the  fiercest  strokes 
with  the  dexterity  of  a  trained  pugilist. 

The  venerable  Otis  J.  P.  Lymian,  born  in  1836,  now 
living  at  Roulette,  Pa.,  told  the  following: 

"About  fifty  years  ago  I  had  a  scrap  with  a  very 
large  bear,  but  I  did  not  finish  it,  either  first  or  second 
best.  I  was  working  on  a  lumber  job  on  the  Wykoff 
Branch  of  Cowley  Run,  drawing  pine  logs  to  the 
slide  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  starting  them  down 
the  slide  to  Preston's  mill. 

/'The  snow  was  two  feet  deep  on  the  level  hilltop 
and  I  had  rolled  a  log  of  600  board  feet  into  the  loose 
snow,  and  was  bothered  to  get  it  started  down  the 
slide.  My  dog  began  barking  out  in  the  woods  and 
laurel,  as  if  he  had  treed  a  man,  as  was  his  bad  habit 


14         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

of  doing.  So  I  used  strong  language  and  bade  him 
to  quit  barking,  which  he  did. 

"Presently  my  horses  began  stamping,  turned 
around  and  ran  away,  getting  fast  against  a  tree,  one 
of  them  trying  to  go  forward  on  each  side  of  it.  I 
went  to  see  about  untangling  them,  and  'there  stood 
a  bear  with  yellow  legs,  within  four  rods  of  me !  The 
bear  wanted  to  come  right  where  I  stood !  With  my 
pick-lever  I  stepped  right  up  to  him,  thinking  I  could 
kill  a  bear  with  a  club ! 

"The  bear  was  determined  to  cross  the  slide,  and 
he  came  right  along  toward  me  and  put  his  fore-feet 
on  the  banking  log  opposite  me,  growling  a  little 
and  showing  his  white  teeth  to  me.  1  told  him  to,  stay 
right  where  he  was;  that  I  could  kill  and  carry  home 
any  black  bear,  with  yellow  legs,  in  Pennsylvania, 
using  nny  lever  as  a  club,  for  the  purpose. 

'*But  he  only  .grinned  harder,  so  I  struck  him  as 
hard  as  I  could,  right  on  the  head !  Or  I  tried  to,  and 
hit  only  his  arm,  as  he  fended  off  my  blow,  nearly 
jerking  the  pick-lever  from  my  hands,  and  growled 
at  me,  as  only  a  bear  can  growl,  springing  up  the  bank, 
opposite,  growling,  'You  better  leave  me  alone !'  " 

SECTION  II 

Several  hunters'  camps  in  the  Counties  of  Potter 
and  McKelan  were  visited  by  W.  R.  Grimes,  son  of 
the  late  Edwin  R.  Grimes,  during  the  recent  hunting 
season,  but  he  doubts  that  fifty  bears  were  slain  in 


ONE  OF  "TRAPPER"  E.  N.  WOODCOCK'S 
BIG  BEARS,  POTTER  COUNTY 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        15 

both  Counties.  He  believes  that  26  were  killed  by 
hunters  within  the  borders  of  Potter  County,  during 
1920;  that  no  more  than  the  increase  have  been  de- 
stroyed, although  many  bears  were  driven  from  the 
County  by  the  great  number  of  hunters  here;  that 
most  of  them  will  soon  return. 

The  diet  of  bears  is  of  mixed  character  and  they 
are  capable  of  sustaining  existence  on  either  a  vege- 
table or  a  purely  animal  diet,  to  ibe  either  carnivorous 
or  vegetarian  at  will  They  are  harmless  anirrtals  at 
most  times,  when  undisturbed,  contenting  themselves 
with  fruit,  honey,  nuts,  roots,  snails  and  insects,  and 
similar  articles  of  diet,  rarely  attacking  the  higher 
animals,  except  when  driven  by  dire  necessity. 

In  combat  with  man,  the  bear  exhibits  a  fearful 
ingenuity  and  "the  strength  of  ten  men  and  the  sense 
of  twelve,"  he  directs  attack  upon  the  head  of  his 
antagonist  and  may  strike  off  the  scalp  at  one  blow. 
Then  use  teeth  instead  of  claws  on  the  prostrate  foe 
whose  senses  seem'  blunted,  while  under  the  bear. 

The  extreme  tenacity  of  life  and  the  fearful  energy 
which  a  wounded  bear  compresses  into  its  last  mo- 
ments of  existence  reveal  a  most  terrible  antagonist. 
Unless  struck  in  brain  or  'heart,  the  bear  is  more  to 
be  feared  when  wounded  severely  than  when  no  in- 
jury has  been  inflicted,  and  it  wreaks  dire  injury  on 
its  foe  during  the  last  moments  of  existence. 

Quiescent  in  apparent  ddath,  the  stunned  bear  may 
revive  and  do  great  harm  to  an  incautious  hunter  who 


16  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

carelessly  approaches  his  fallen  victim  before  life  has 
ceased. 

To  the  hunter,  an  angry  bear  is  a  formidable  ant?ag- 
onist ;  and  'although  there  have  been  instances  where 
a  man  has  conquered  a  bear  in  fair  hand-to-hand  con- 
flict, there  are  few  animals  which  a  hunter  would  not 
rather  oppose,  deprived  of  fire-arms,  with  only  knife 
or  hatchet,  than  the  black  bear.  On  a  few  occasions 
a  ioolhardy  person  has  ventured  to  attack  and  kill 
a  bear  in  single  combat,  without  firearms,  using  a 
club,  axe  or  canthook,  but  the  successful  ending  of 
such  issues  did  not  establish  a  new  and  popular  variety' 
of  sport,  nor  did  these  experienced  men  thereafter 
encourage  their  friends  to  attack  the  bear,  unless  pro- 
vided with  la  gun — a  reliable  rifle. 

The  great  bear  slayer  of  Potter  County,  Leroy 
Lyman,  born  1821,  died  in  1886,  told  our  High  School 
boys  of  his  experience,  advising  them  to  be  very  dis- 
crete in  all  dealings  with  the  bear. 

Mr.  Lyman  was  a  large,  active  man,  74  inches  tall, 
with  strong,  capable  hands  and  limbs.  He  caught  a 
medium  sized  bear  in  a  steel  trap  and  decided  to  kill 
it  with  a  heavy  club;  so  setting  his  gun  against  a 
tree,  he  cut  a  club  6  ft.  long,  and  rapped  bruin  on  the 
head.  Then  action  became  furious.  The  bear  jerked 
its  fcK>t  out  of  the  trap  and  chased  Mr.  Lyman  round 
•and  round  a  big  hemlock  tree,  until  both  became  tired. 
After  a  dozen  blows  with  the  handspike  the  bear  was 
finally  stunned  and  quickly  killed.  Mr.  Lyman  went 
home,  chuckling,  "Never  again;  no,  never  again!" 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         17 

An  adult  bear  weighs  200  to  300  pounds  in  Sum- 
mer, when  thin,  and  400  pounds  in  Autumn,  if  fat. 
Sometimes  a  500-pound  bear  has  been  reported  in  late 
autumn  or  early  Winter;  but  such  specimens  are  ex- 
tremely rare.  Chestnuts  are  bruin's  favorite  food, 
and  branches  of  trees,  loaded  with  ripe  nuts,  are  lop- 
ped off,  for  his  breakfast. 

The  bear  sheds  its  fur  in  April  and  grows  a  Sum- 
mer suit  of  glossy  black  hair.  This  is  shed  in  October 
and  the  Winter  suit  of  thick  fur  takes  its  place  and 
warms  the  bear. 

The  late  Edwin  Grimes,  (1830-1919),  told  of  killing 
a  450-pound  bear.  Seeing  the  huge  animal  walking 
on  a  log,  Mr.  Grimes  shot  it  through  the  neck.  Cry- 
ing ''O-o-oh",  the  bear  slid  off  the  log  and  lay  prone, 
with  head  resting  on  its  fore-paws.  ^Another  bullet 
was  then  sent  through  its  neck,  and  the  old  hunter 
approached  the  bear.  His  dog,  Mia j or,  sniffed  at  the 
bear's  heels,  leaping  back  and  snapping  viciously. 

The  hunter  said  :  *'Why  don't  you  take  hold  of  him. 
Major?"  Thus  encouraged,  the  dog  bit  harder,  leap- 
ing back,  quickly,  and  barking  in  :a  low  key,  as  though 
angry  and  fearful.  On  bruin's  neck,  the  hair  rose  in 
anger,  so  the  hunter  sent  another  bullet  crashing 
through  its  brain.  The  more  experienced  hunters  are 
ever  the  most  cautious  when  a  bear  has  been  mortally 
wounded. 

The  skin  of  this  great  bear  became  a  beautiful  robe, 
with  long  silky  hair  and  thick  fur,  that  has  often  kept 


18         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

the  writer  warm,  through  the  coldest  nights  of  Winter, 
in  the  Potter  County  mountains. 

SECTION  III 

No  doubt  bears  live  to  be  twenty  years  old,  or  more, 
in  their  Avild  environment,  if  not  injured  or  slain  by 
man.  It  is  the  older  male  bears  which  prey  upon 
cattle,  but  the  females  and  younger  males  may  learn 
to  kill  sheep  and  hogs,  if  pressed  for  food,  to  sustain 
existence;  but  danger  from  them  is  remote.  When 
bears  have  taken  to  the  business  of  stealing  cattle, 
sheep  or  hogs,  there  will  be  no  peace  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, until  freed  from  the  presence  of  these  mai^aud- 
ers.  The  taste  of  blood  intoxicates  the  bear  and  he 
seems  to  become  an  inebriate,  while  opportunity  re- 
mains to  satisfy  his  desire  for  the  particular  food  on 
which  he  has  banqueted  at  will;  but  such  cases  are 
rare,  and  they  should  be  slain  as  soon  as  may  be  pos- 
sible, in  every  case,  regardless  of  protective  law  or 
closed  season.  Furthermore,  a  reward  should  be  paid 
by  the  Commonwealth  to  the  slayer  of  an  outlaw  bear, 
when  his  depredations  in  any  farming  community 
serve  to  identify  him.  Such  bears  are  dangerous  to 
people. 

During  the  month  of  June,  bears  are  very  thin  and 
neither  their  flesh  nor  fur  has  any  value.  They  are 
especially  fie'rce  at  this  time,  so  people  should  keep 
aloof  from  forest  coverts  where  the  female  bear 
guards  her  playful  offspring,  and  the  males  are  seek- 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         19 

ing  their  mates.  When  two  of  them  take  a  fancy  for 
the  same  female,  they  fight  for  the  prize  in  unrelenting 
fury.  At  other  seasons  the  males  are  inclined  to  lead 
solitary  lives,  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  far  from  the 
presence  of  man.  The  bear  seldom  makes  an  un- 
provoked attack  on  a  human  being,  and  when  it  does 
so,  it  is  because  it  has  become  desperate  from  the 
pangs  of  hunger.  Then  it  is  greatly  to  be  dreaded 
by  the  benighted  traveler  who  is  alone  where  desperate 
bears  abound,  with  no  companion  or  faithful  dog  to 
share  his  watch. 

Bears  climb  trees  and  rocks  with  facile  ease,  and 
they  swim  well,  bathing  often  in  Summer.  They  are 
also  expert  diggers.  During  the  time  when  it  is  en- 
gaged in  feeding,  the  bear  climlbs  constantly  up  all 
kinds  of  elevated  spots,  searching  for  food,  either 
vegetable  or  animal.  Leaves  of  trees,  fruit,  nuts  and 
nests  of  ants  and  wild  bees,  berries  and  fruit  of 
vines  are  favorite  articles  of  diet. 

In  Autumn,  bears  become  exceedingly  fat  in  con^ 
sequence  of  ample  feasts  of  fruit,  nuts  and  wild  honey 
which  they  are  able  to  enjoy,  as  they  roam  abroad 
through  the  forests  and  barrens,  and  make  prepara- 
tions for  passing  the  cold,  inhospitable  months  of 
Winter  in  some  den,  used  for  a  hibernating  home. 
The  supply  of  fat  in  its  body  serves  the  double  pur- 
pose of  sustaining  the  creature  in  proper  condition 
during  its  long  fast,  and  of  loading  the  body  with 
carbon  for  the  purpose  of  producing  the  state  of 
lethargy   in   which  the  anima  I '  passes    the    Winter. 


20  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Honey  produces  fat  and  the  bear  is  led  by  instinct 
to  search  for  and  devour  it  untiringly.  Potter  County 
Legislators,  working  in  the  interest  of  the  pot  hunt- 
ers, charge  bears  with  destroying  bee-keepers  *'scaps,'' 
but  as  very  few  bees  are  raised  in  the  County,  the 
losses  are  negligible 

A  curious  phenomenon  takes  place  in  the  digestive 
organs  of  the  bdar  enabling  it  to  remain  the  entire 
Winter  without  losing  condition.  The  stomach  be- 
comes quite  empty  and,  together  with  the  intestines, 
is  contracted  into  a  very  small  space.  No  food  passes 
through  the  system,  for  'a  mechanical  construction 
styled  the  "tappen"  blocks  the  passage,  remaining  in 
position  until  Spring.  It  is  composed  almost  entirely 
of  pine  leaves  and  substances  from  ants'  nests  which 
bears  devour  avariciously. 

It  is  maintained  that  a  hibernating  bear,  discover- 
ed and  killed  in  its  den,  is  quite  as  fat  as  before  it 
retired  to  its  resting  place.  At  the  end  of  four  or  five 
months'  sleep,  it  is  claimed  that  the  bear  is  as  fat  at 
the  beginning  of  its  sleep ;  but  this  fat  is  soon  oxygen- 
ized or  burned  up,  when  the  animal  begins  to  exercise 
in  open  air  and  grow  its  fresh  coat  of  hair,  in  Spring. 

During  Winter,  bears  gain  new  skin  on  the  balls 
oS  their  feet,  facilitated,  no  doubt,  by  their  habit  of 
sucking  their  paws  while  hibernating.  In  its  soft, 
warm  bed  of  moss  and  leiaves,  the  bear  dreams  the 
Winter  days  away,  and  the  high  cost  of  living  may 
go  hang,  in  bruin's  philosophy.    Throughout  our  east- 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  21 

ern  States  and  Eastern  Canada,  the  fur  and  fat  are  of 
commercial  Value  and  the  flesh  esteemed  for  food. 

Bear's  oil  is  a  great  hair  restorer,  promoting  gloss 
and  vigorous  growth.  The  hard,  white  fat  of  the  in- 
terior of  the  body  is  the  only  fat  that  should  be  used 
for  the  purpose ;  but  titular  ''bear's  grease  has  often 
been  only  hog's  lard,  colored  and  scented  to  charm 
the  eyes  and  nostrils  of  purchasers,  and  of  doubtful 
benefit  to  their  hair.  Thus  do  the  busy  promoters  of 
trade  in  cosmetics  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  and  grease 
the  hair  of  confiding  buyers  whom  they  mulct,  delude 
and  disappoint  regarding  one  virtue  of  Bruin's  fat ! 

From  one  'to  four  cubs  are  born,  in  January  or  early 
in  February,  to  each  mother  bear,  which  are  very 
small  during  the  first  few  days  of  existence,  six  to 
eight  inches  long.  The  mother  furnishes  ample  nour- 
ishment for  their  rapid  growth,  without  taking  food 
or  apparent  diminution  of  her  condition;  while  hiber- 
nating, until  spring,  taking  the  best  of  care  of  her 
offspring  during  summer  and  preparing  winter  quar- 
ters for  them  near  her  own  winter  resort.  During 
the  winter  another  little  family  is  born,  and  when 
they  issue  forth  from  their  den  in  spring,  they  are 
often  joined  by  the  year-old  cubs  during  the  spring, 
summer  and  autumn ;  so  hunters  frequently  see  droves 
of  bears  traveling  through  (the  woods,  searching  for 
food. 

The  droves  frequently  follow  the  same  path  until  a 
trail  is  worn  and  may  be  seen  by  observing  hunters, 
who  then  may  find  bears  along  these  trails  simply  by 


22  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

watching  them  in  early  morning  or  the  afternoon, 
until  night  makes  the  sight  of  them  invisible  in  the 
shaded  forest  or  jungle  of  briars,  bushes  and  ferns. 

SECTION  IV. 

Recently,  men  hunt  bears  in  squads  and  platoons, 
armed  with  repeating  rifles  of  long  range,  with  high- 
powered  ammunition,  and  automatic  pistols  of  large 
calibre.  The  Oleona  Forest  was  an  illustration  of 
battle  in  Argonne  Woods  during  -the  World  War. 
This  noisy  and  dangerous  method  frightened  careful 
hunters  away  from  the  woods  and  destroyed  the  sport 
and  the  exultation  that  a  hunter  feels  when,  alone, 
he  has  bagged  a  bear. 

High-powered  ammunition  and  rifles  of  long  range 
are  deadly  in  ithe  forest,  where  the  range  of  vision  is 
limited,  for  the  bears  and  for  hunters.  Men  are 
wounded  or  killed  and  few  bears  are  killed  by  the 
noisy  crews.  Old-time  guns  of  moderate  range  should 
be  carried  by  hunters  in  our  hills,  in  preference  to 
guns  of  long  range  that  frequently  kill  a  man  beyond 
vision  of  the  man  who  shoots. 

The  chase  of  the  black  bear  was  exceedingly 
dangerous  to  the  lone  hun>ter,  with  his  inferior  gun 
of  fifty  years  ago.  Although  naturally  a  quiet  and 
retiring  creature,  keeping  aloof  from  mankind,  it  is 
truly  a  ferocious  beast  when  hemmed  in  by  antag- 
onists. Seated  erect,  eyeballs  darting  fury,  ears  laid 
back,  tongue  lolling  from  its  mouth,  and  every  ges- 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  23 

ture  glowing  with,  fierce  energy,  it  presents  a  front 
to  unnerve  a  novice  or  anyone  but  an  experienced 
hunter.  With  terrible  blows  it  beats  off  the  dogs  as 
though  they  were  rabbits,  and,  charging  them,  crushes 
a  dog's  skull  as  though  it  were  an  egg  shell.  Nothing 
but  a  rifle  ball  in  a  vital  spot  will  then  check  the  ani- 
mal in  its  furious  rage.  Then  the  old  warrior  falls 
on  the  field  of  battle,  and  the  hunter  feels  a  splendid 
thrill. 

Parker  Run  flows  into  Portage  Creek,  two  miles 
west  of  Keating  Summit.  Its  source  is  six  miles 
south,  in  the  township  of  Norwich,  in  McKean  Coua- 
ty,  Pa.  In  1860  the  passenger  pigeons  had  a  nesting 
city  on  the  old  salt  works— Parker  Run — and  some 
timber  was  felled,  to  get  the  squabs.  Later  a  thrifty 
young  forest  sprang  up,  and  wild  grape  vines  trailed 
over  the  young  trees,  bending  down  the  tops  and  the 
branches,  under  loads  of  frost  grapes,  and  the  damp 
snows  of  fall,  making  a  jungle  almost  impenetrable 
by  man,  and  an  ideal  resort  for  bears  that  feast  on 
wild  grapes. 

On  the  north,  in  township  of  Roulette,  in  Potter 
County,  dwelt  Edwin  R.  Grimes  and  his  sons,  Walter 
Rea  and  Edwin  Grimes,  Junior,  who  loved  to  hunt 
Bruin  through  late  autumn.  Edwin,  Senior,  saw 
many  swarms  of  honey  bees,  deserting  their  hives, 
fly  toward  Parker  Run,  so  they  reasoned  that  bears 
would  congregate  in  that  forest  to  get  the  wild  honey, 
and  they  built  a  log  cabin  near  the  wild  grape  vines, 
to  be  near  their  prey.     On  the  south  were  tracts  of 


24         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

timber  owned  by  the  Boody  heirs,  the  Heebner  estate 
and  by  F.  H.  and  C.  W.  Goodyear,  over  thirty  thou- 
sand acres  of  cover  for  the  wild  game. 

From  the  hut  they  and  their  friends  hunted  deer 
and  bears  for  many  years.  In  October  of  1877,  Sen- 
eca Pomeroy  and  J.  B.  Davison  climbed  the  Shinglo 
Cabin  mountain  before  daylight,  to  hunt  for  a  bear. 
They  approached  the  chestnut  grove  on  the  ridge  as 
quietly  as  was  possible,  listening  to  the  pop,  pop,  pop 
of  limbs,  lopped  off  by  a  bear  to  get  the  nuts.  These 
limbs  fell  to  the  ground,  under  the  tree,  where  Bruin 
could  get  the  nuts  at  his  ease  when  he  descended  the 
tree,  and  there  enjoy  his  breakfast. 

As  the  first  rays  of  the  rising  sun  gilded  the  tops  of 
the  highest  trees,  the  hunters  beheld  Bruin  as  he  slid 
down  the  chestnut  tree,  and  *' Seneca"  shot  his  long 
rifle,  aimed  at  Bruin's  neck.  Then  the  bear  charged 
upon  the  men,  while  Davison  held  his  Winchester 
ready  to  finish  Bruin  at  close  range,  and  ''Seneca" 
reloaded  his  rifle. 

When  Bruin  came  near  he  sat  up  erect,  crying 
and  growling.  Then  "Seneca"  stood  before  him,  re- 
peating the  familiar  Indian  epilogue:  "Hark,  now, 
Musquaw !  You  are  a  coward,  and  no  warrior,  as 
you  pretend  to  be.  Our  tribes  have  been  at  war  for 
many  years.  Yours  were  the  aggresssors  and  you 
found  us  too  strong,  so  you  sneak  about,  stealing 
sheep  and  pigs  from  us,  and  robbing  our  cornfieMs 
that  our  squaws  have  planted  for  our  food  in  winter, 
while  you  are  sleeping.    Perhaps,  even  now,  you  have 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         25 

corn  in  your  belly,  while  you  cry  and  whimper  like  an 
old  squaw." 

Then  he  shot  the  bear  again,  which  turned  and 
rapidly  climbed  a  small  tree,  where  he  hung,  twenty 
feet  above  the  hunters,  for  a  while.  Then  he  feli  to 
the  ground,  quite  dead,  and  the  hunters  dragged  him 
to  the  foot  of  the  hill  as  rapidly  as  they  could,  and 
proceeded  to  skin  and  dress  the  meat,  which  was  fat 
and  delicious. 

— From  Altoona  Tribune  of  January  ii,  ipi^. 

On  his  twelfth  birthday  anniversary,  Edwin  Grimes 
shot  and  killed  a  large  black  bear  near  Canoe  Place, 
(Port  Allegheny,  McKean  County),  where  his  parents 
had  located  ''the  Grimes  settlement"  on  the  south 
bank  of  the  Allegheny,  while  hunting  with  Jacobs, 
the  Seneca  bear  hunter,  the  latter  known  as  "Jim 
Jacobs,"  and  at  each  return  of  the  hazy  days  of  No- 
vember, the  Indian  Summer,  he  wished  to  try  for 
another,  to  lengthen  his  list,  which  had  grown  from 
year  to  year  to  198  dead  bears,  as  his  eightieth  birth- 
day approached,  in  1910.  He  resolved  to  try  to  ''get" 
two  more  bears  on  tha)t  day,  and  went  from  Roulette 
to  the  big  Nunundah  (Potato  Creek)  forest  for  that 
purpose. 

Following  an  old  log  road,  over  which  great  cherry 
and  pine  trees  had  been  hauled  for  lumber,  in  the 
township  of  Norwich,  he  came  to  a  cleared  spot 
where  a  lumber  camp  had  been,  at  (the  edge  of  which 
he  sat  upon  a  log  to  rest  in  the  bright  sunshine  of 
the  frosty  morning,  there    b'eing    no    snow    on    the 


26         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

ground.  At  the  opposite  side  of  the  little  clearing 
s'tood  a  large  chestnut  tree,  and  beyond  it  loomed  a 
dank  forest  of  great  hemlock  trees,  30,000  acres,  the 
last  great  tract  of  hemlock  in  Pennsylvania. 

Mr.  Grimes  had  always  been  a  still-hunter,  and  his 
four-score  years  made  the  most  passive  form  a  ne- 
cessity. So  he  sat  dozing  on  the  log,  recalling  legends 
of  the  past:  that  Jim  Jacobs  had  said  his  grand- 
mother (generic  name  of  ancestral  female  line)  was 
an  educated  girl  of  the  Eriez,  his  grandfather  a  white 
man ;  both  were  Senecas  by  adoption ;  that  Mary 
Gleason,  his  wife,  was*  half-white;  they  had  Hved  on 
the  East  Branch  of  Fishing  Creek  until  Aaron  Rob- 
bins  sdttled  there;  then  at  the  head  of  Webster  Hol- 
low ;  later  by  the  river,  north  of  the  source  of  Free- 
man's Run;  that  Jacob  was  dead  since  1886,  and 
his  two  sons  and  a  daughter  only  remained  of  his 
family. 

With  eyes  wide  open  the  dream  passed  through  his 
reminiscent  faculties.  Would  the  two  bears  he  de- 
sired never  come?  He  dozed  again,  ears  alert.  That 
mossy  stump  of  an  old-growth  pine  yonder  shows 
how  deep  snow  caused  the  chopper  to  cut  high  above 
the  ground;  that  white  pine  stood  there  when  Colum- 
bus unrolled  the  map  of  a  western  world  which  the 
eastern  hemisphere  had  hardly  dreamed  of;  the  red 
populations  he  had  known  in  a  lifetime  spent  near 
the  forest ;  the  red  pilots  and  raftsmen  on  the  rivers ; 
the  red  hunters  he  had  known;  the  wolves  he  had 
killed;   the  deer— 800   of  them— that  he  had  killed; 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  27 

the  200  bears,  lacking  only  two;  would  they  come  to 
him  ?     Not  likely.     That  snapping  stick ! 

Alert  now,  he  mused,  what  could  have  caused  a 
stidk  to  break?  There  it  is  again!  How  his  blood 
tingled  at  the  thought  that  it  "may  be  a  bear !"  With 
shaking  hand,  he  rubbed  his  dim  eyes  'and  stood  erect. 
The  thicket  of  weeds  beyond  the  clearing  waved  a 
little,  he  thought ;  could  it  have  been  only  the  breeze  ? 
All  his  senses  were  centered  upon  that  thicket,  as  he 
stood  m.otionless,  nerves  tingling  and  the  blood  rushed 
in  veins,  pounded  in  his  ear  drums. 

The  distance  was  hardly  two  hundred  yards.  The 
nervous  tension  was  great,  his  legs  shook  and  tremors 
passed  along  his  spine,  "Buck-fever"  almost  caused 
tears  in  his  fast-winkling  eyes,  but  there  he  stood,  as 
motionless  as  the  old  pine  stump;  the  slightest  move- 
ment might  be  fatal  to  his  earnest  desire!  Again 
the  weeds  move,  ever  so  slightly,  but  his  vision  clears 
and  his  frame  stiffens;  he  stands  as  rigidly  as  a 
pointer  dog;  he  seems  to  scent  the  animal;  nerves 
are  now  quiet  and  patience  rules  the  ancient  hunter; 
he  cocks  his  Winchester  and  fixes  his  eyes  upon  the 
thicket;  a  form  emerges  from  the  weeds;  still  he 
waits  and  another  form,  a  smaller  one,  appears ! 

A  large  she-bear  and  her  six-months-old  cub  ap- 
proached the  chestnut  'tree ;  they  pick  up  the  fallen 
nuts  from  the  ground ;  the  cub  plays  about  its  mother ; 
she  pushes  it  aside  and  then  rolls  it  in  the  leaves,  the 
old  hunter  raises  his  gun,  his  eye  traces  the  gun- 
sights,   in  line   with  the  base  of  her  ear,   his   finger 


28         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

presses  the  trigger  and  the  mother-bear  slowly  sinks 
beside  her  astonished  cub;  he  pumps  the  reloading 
lever,  sights  at  the  cub's  head  and  lagain  his  finger 
presses  the  trigger.  Noise  of  the  two  reports  rings 
out  a  paeon  of  victory. 

There  is  a  change  of  scene.  Edwin  Grimes  con- 
templates the  two  prone  forms,  the  fulfillment  of  his 
dearest  wish,  the  accomplishment  of  his  fondest  dream, 
his  heart's  desire,  that  equalled  a  prayer  in  its  achieve- 
ment, made  his  score  complete.  He  had  killed  two 
hundred  bdars,  strict  account  and  full  measure! 
Patience,  steadiness  of  eye  and  hand,  'and  alertness 
of  mind  had  won  the  task  he  had  set  for  himself. 
The  last  prizes  were  his  upon  his  eightieth  birthday 
anniversary.  The  bears  were  removed,  by  Edwin 
Grimes,  Junior,  to  their  Card  Creek  home  in  the 
township  of  Roulette,  County  of  Potter,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, where  a  snap-shot  photograph  shows  the 
two  bears,  the  two  men;  and  the  farm  dog  is  on 
guard. 

In  politics,  Edwin  Grimes  is  a  Democrat,  and  as 
emphatic  as  was  Andrew  Jackson,  when  he  expresses 
an  opinion,  confirming  it  by  a  "By  Dan!"  On  his 
farm  he  works  like  a  Trojan  to  help  his  great  con- 
frere, Woodrow  Wilson,  *'lick  the  dang  Germans!" 
He  m'akes  maple  syrup,  gathers  his  choice  winter 
apples,  tends  his  large  garden  and  makes  hay,  each 
Summer,  for  his  horses  and  cattle.  Two  girls,  his 
granddaughters,  keep  his  house  and  make  him  com- 
fortable. 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  29 

In  his  younger  days,  Mr.  Grimes  was  an  expert 
Greco-Roman  wrestler,  as  miany  a  conceited  raftsman 
and  lumberjack  have  learned,  when  Edwin,  accepted 
a  challenge  and  standing  up,  face  to  face,  with  collar 
and  elbow  in  each  others  grasp,  quickly  sent  his  an- 
tagonist's heels  flying  high,  and  shoulders  to  the 
ground,  five  points  touching  the  soil  on  the  instant  of 
relaxation  of  muscles,  caused  by  the  jar  of  so  force- 
ful concussion  a's  the  landing  shock.  "Beau"  Gould, 
the  Hinsdale  wrestler,  has  said: 

"Edwin  Grimes  was  the  only  man  that  I  never 
succeeded  in  laying  upon  his  back,  at  least,  soni'etimes, 
in  a  wrestling  bout." 

As  a  rafting  pilot  on  the  Adlegheny  he  had  no 
superior,  either  redman  or  white,  and  the  services  of 
Edwin  Grimes  were  always  in  demand  for  the  fast- 
running  rafts  of  "pig-iron,"  (Green  hemlock  logs  of 
lum^ber,  cut  in  Winter  and  milled  with  bark  on), 
which  being  heavier  than  pine,  slid  down  the  water 
decline  more  rapidly ;  and  were  more  likely  to  turn 
edgewise  when  they  struck  a  rock  or  an  island,  mak- 
ing total  wreckage. 

When  rafting  on  the  Allegheny  declined,  Edwin 
Grimes  peeled  much  hemlock,  as  contractor  for  tan- 
ners and  lumbermen,  among  whom  he  was  accounted 
trustworthy,  reliable  and  energetic,  a  worthy  and  hon- 
orable citizen,  an  honest  man.  Leroy  Lyman  was  a 
Republican,  and  they  were  rival  hunters  of  bear  and 
deer,  so  much  good-fellowship  existed  between  them, 
and  sometimes  bordering  upon  truculence.     Mr.  Ly- 


30  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

man  took  a  deer  that  Mr.  Grimes  ha'd  killed,  claim- 
ing it  as  his;  but  Grimes  protested  to  no  avail.  But 
later,  Mr.  Lyman  left  at  the  post  office,  for  Mr. 
Grimes,  ten  dollars,  reason;aible  value  of  a  deer,  at 
that  time. 

At  another  time,  Mr. '  Grimes  killed  and  began 
dressing  a!  deer,  when  along  came  Mr.  Lyman,  claim- 
ing the  deer,  which  he  seized  by  the  horns,  dragged 
it  down  the  hill  in  the  snow  saying  it  was  his  deer 
and  he  would  take  it  home.  Mr.  Grimes  then  ran 
after  him,  leaped  upon  his  back  and  both  rolled  in 
the  snow  a  while,  without  striking  each*  other.  Then 
Mr.  Lyman  went  home,  without  the  deer. 

Early  in  January,  1919,  as  Edwin  R.  Grimes  en- 
tered his  home,  he  fell  across  the  threshold  and  died 
instantly,  at  a  ripe  old  age,  without  a  struggle. 


o 

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S 


A  Few  Sidelights  On  Bears 

"To  dream  a  bear  thy  self  pursues, 
A  cruel  foe  some  mischief  brews." 

—Old  Rime. 

In  "Extinct  Pennsylvania  Animals."  Parts  I.  and 
II.  by  the  writer  of  these  lines  are  recorded  the  un- 
happy stories  of  the  extermination  of  a  dozen  of  the 
larger  forms  of  mammals  which  once  inhabited  the 
Keystone  State.  They  were  unnecessarily  wiped  out 
of  existencex  to  satisfy  man's  misguided  zeal  and 
rapacity,  and  for  political  reasons,  to  keep  the  moun- 
taineer vote  in  line  by  the  payment  of  "bounties." 
Through  some  miracle  of  good  fortune,  the  Black 
Bear  has  been  spared  so  that  we  of  the  present  gen^ 
eration  can  enjoy  the  presence  of  this  unique  game 
animal  in  our  forests. 

The  deer  are  also  with  us,  but  it  is  a  question  as 
to  whether  they  remain  in  their  native  form,  or  are 
merely  introduced  animals  from  the  West  and  South, 
and  their  descendants. 

The  Black  Bear  was  never  "introduced"  by  Game 
Department  Officials,  in  fact,  was  never  given  a  fair 
chance  until  a  few  years  ago,  when  he  was  on  tlie 
verge  of  extermination,  trapping  and  other  unfair 
means  of  destroying  him  were  forbidden  by  law.  But 
his  enemies  will  never  rest,  they  want  a  longer  season, 
they  want  the  privilege  of  taking  him  in  pens,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  privileges  gained  in  the  law  which   was 


31 


32  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

jammed  through  the  Legislature  of  1919.  If  a  protec- 
tive measure  ior  any  animal  or  bird  could  go  through 
one  quarter  as  fast,  we  would  have  all  the  game  needed 
in  Pennsylvania.  The  1919  la\v  was  passed  in  order  to 
nullify  improved  dog-law  in  Potter  County.,  and  save 
the  scalps  of  a  legion  of  worthless  underfed  canines. 
At  that  time,  and  at  other  times,  unlicensed -dogs  were 
ravaging  Potter  County  sheepfolds,  and  it  was  either 
annihilate  the  sheep  killing  mongrels  or  blame  the 
"slaughter  of  the  innocents"  on  something  else — the 
bears  of  course,  as  the  wolves  had  already  vanished 
up  the  dark  road,  for  the  same  unholy  reason.  The 
bears  were  officially  ''blamed,"  a  wise  law  was  abro- 
gated, and  the  irresponsible  owners  of  many  a  mangy 
cur  were  exultant.  They  will  do  all  against  the 
bears  during  the  present  session  they  can.  When 
the  unjust  charges  were  brought  against  the  bears  in 
1918  and  1919,  the  writer  was  in  the  Army,  but  from 
a  distance  endeavored  to  investigate  through  corre- 
spondence every  alleged  case  of  bears  killing  sheep. 
In  each  community  the  honest  unbiased  citizens  wrote 
him  the  facts — he  has  the  letters  on  file— -showing  that 
in  no  published  case  were  bears  the  culprits,  and  in 
some  instances  the  sheep  had  been  killed  and  carried 
off  over  high  fences  by  human  marauders.  Copies 
of  these  letters  were  sent  to  Dr.  Kalbfus,  who  re- 
plied stating  that  in  order  to  save  any  protection  for 
the  bears,  he  would  prefer  not  to  enter  the  fight  in 
their  behalf,  that  half  a  law  was  better  than  none,  etc. 
It  was  also  strange  that  no  account  of  these  ''depreda- 


H 

"^ 

O 
U 

;?; 

H 

a 

Q 

o 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         33 

tions"  were  published  in  the  Potter  and  McKean 
County  newspapers,  which  tJhe  writer  received  reg- 
ularly as  a  subscriber !  It  seems  a  ipity  that  an  animal 
so  pioturesque  in  appearance,  so  grotesque  in  its  habits, 
and  as  great 'a  source  of  sport  should  have  so  many 
enemies,  some  of  our  mountain  people  are  still  in  a 
tribal  state,  and  the  old  desire  'to  kill  off  everything 
still  lurks  in  tlheir  breasts. 

Hon.  Henry  Meyer,  of  Rebersburg,  Centre  County, 
born  in  1840,  says  that  once  he  was  out  trout  fishing 
in  the  early  Spring  on  a  small  stream  on  the  Winter 
side  of  Brush  Valley,  when  he  noted  that  the  water 
was  all  "roiled."  Pretty  soon  he  encountered  a  giant 
Black  Bear  that  was  making  an  unsuccessful  effort  to 
catch  fish  with  its  front  paws.  Mr.  Meyer  is  of  the 
opinion  that  bears  can  never  catch  anything  more  than 
crayfish  in  the  streams. 

The  bear  deserves  all  the  protection  he  can  get,  in 
Pennsylvania',  in  the  South,  in  the  West,  to  furnish 
sport  for  young  manhood,  amusement  for  childhood, 
and  reflection  for  old  age — he  is  an  ally  of  all  that 
is  quaint  and  curious  in  the  life  of  the  forest.  Bear 
hunting  is  a  noble  pastime  if  pursued  according  to 
sporting  rules,  and  all  are  invigorated  and  strengthen- 
ed by  pitting  human  skill  against  such  a  sagacious 
monster.  Economically,  the  bear  is  of  value  for  his 
flesh,  his  hide,  and  his  grease,  he  is  an  insect  destroyer 
of  immense  value  to  the  forests,  consuming  myriads  of 
ants,  which  are  becoming  so  destructive  to  our  >  oung 
pine  trees.    Historically,  he  is  linked  with  Indian  days. 


34         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

and  the  lives  of  our  pioneers,  and  with  the  immense 
amount  of  folk-lore  that  has  clustered  about  him, 
Candlemias  Day,  the  day  of  the  bears,  has  now  be- 
come ground  hog  day  in  the  greater  part  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, due  to  Bruin's  own  transferance  of  the  perqui- 
site of  sensing  the  weather  to  his  marmot  friend^ — 
see  the  story  as  related  by  old  Mr.  Middleswarth  in 
the  writer's  "Juniata  Memories,"  (1916).  To  students 
of  Zoology  bears  are  always  interesting,  especially  in 
Pennsylvania,  where  the  two  more  or  less  mythical 
species,  ''the  'hog  hear"  and  ''the  dog  bear"  will 
always  give  rise  to  discussion,  like  the  Indian  legend 
of  "the  naked  bear,"  a  ferocious  kind  of  ''Musquaw," 
destroyed  at  an  early  day.  The  color  phases  ranging 
from  pure  white  to  piebald,  black  and  brown,  and 
fulvous  red,  cause  much  speculation  as  to  varying 
types  or  sub-species.  Miss  Brackman,  in  her  history 
of  "Susquehanna  County,"  tells  of  a  white  bear  killed 
in  that  County  in  1802,  and  another  white  bear  was 
taken  in  an  animal  drive  in  what  is  now  Snyder  Coun^"'^ 
at  a  still* earlier  period.  Leroy  Lyman,  noted  Potter 
County  hunter,  killed  several  black  bears,  with  dis- 
tinct tinges  of  brown  or  red,  on  breasts,  shoulders  and 
bellies. 

These  skins  were  on  exhibition  at  his  late  home  near 
Roulette,  being  admired  by  many  persons. '  S.  N. 
Rhoads  in  his  "Mammals  of  Pennsylvania  and  New 
Jersey,"  mentioned  several  "red"  bears  killed  in 
Lycoming  and  Sullivan  Counties,  one  as  late  as  1882. 
The  last  red  bear  and  perhaps  the  finest  one  of  all 


FRANK  DAPP  AND  FAMILY 
FAMOUS  BEAR  HUNTER 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  35 

time,  was  shot  by  Edgar  Austin  Schwenk,  of  East-- 
ville,  Clinton  County,  on  the  old  Buffalo  Path,  Union 
County,  November  29,  1912.  The  animal  which 
weighed  dressed  250  pounds,  was  in  its  prime  coat 
and  in  color  resembled  a  fine  Canadian  Red  Fox.  The 
various  shades  of  lemon,  tan  and  fulvous,  shining  lik^ 
burnished  gold  in  the  sunlight,  make  it  a  trophy  well 
worth  possessing.  It  is  now  in  the  collection  of  the 
writer  of  this  article.  Nnmrod  Schwenk,  when  inter- 
viewed in  the  Spring  of  1915,  stated  that  he  believed 
that  there  was  another  bear  of  the  same  coloring  in  the 
White  Deer  Creek  forests,  as  .he  had  come  upon  its 
bed  several  times,  finding  hairs  which  the  monster 
had  rubbed  off  in  his  slumbers.  The  White  Deer 
Creek  region  was  a  famous  County  for  bear  hunting. 
Reuben  McCormick,  born  in  1828,  says  that  the 
hillsides  were  lined  with  stone  bear  pits,  resembling 
coke  ovens,  where  the  brutes  by  stepping  on  a  re- 
volving door  on  the  top  of  'these  tumuli,  on  the  under 
side  of  which  a  piece  of  meat  was  fastened,  would 
be  dropped  into  the  barrows  helpless  captives.  The 
range  of  the  bears  in  Pennsylvania  is  gradually  becom- 
ing more  circumscribed.  In  colonial  times,  they  came 
as  near  to  Philadelphia  as  Germantown,  as  told  in 
Watson's  *'Annals,"  now  they  are  gone  from  the  Blue 
mountains  along  the  Western  and  Northern  bound- 
aries of  Berks  and  Lehigh  Counties,  although  they 
were  noticed  there  not  infrequently  until  after  the 
Civil  war.  C.  H.  McNeely,  a  retired  *Tennsy"  rail- 
roader, born  in  1838,  says  that  during  the  Civil  war. 


36         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

a  hunter  from  Dauphin,  met  a  she-bear  with  two  cubs 
on  the  Second  Mountain,  killing  the  old  bear  and  bring- 
ing the  cubs  in  triumph  to  town.  The  Second  Moun- 
tain is  considerably  less  than  ten  miles  from  Harris- 
burg.  So  early  as  the  seventies  they  were  rare  in 
about  the  mouth  of  the  Juniata,  as  per  the  following 
quotation  from  Silas  Wright's  excellent  ''History  of 
Perry  County." 

"In  1871,  an  old  bear  and  cub  crossed  through 
Pfoutz's  Valley,  over  the  Forge  Ridge  into  Wildcat 
Valley,  where  some  hunters  frightened  them  to  return, 
which  they  did,  and  were  killed  in  Juniata  County. 
They  had  been  driven  from  Shade  M'ountain  by  the 
fires  which  were  burning  over  them  at  that  season  of 
the  year.''  They  have  long  since  disappeared  from 
the  vicinity  of  Pittsburg,  and  about  Erie;  they  are 
gone  from  the  South  Mountains  and  the  Poconos. 
Migratory  though  They  are,  they  are  also  timorous, 
and  will  not  venture  into  regions  where  they  are  per- 
sistently molested.  Flavins  J.  David,  veteran  sur- 
veyor of  Lock  Haven,  who  died  in  1920.  said  that 
once,  about  1898.  he  was  surveying  on  a  mountain  in 
Union  County,  when  he  suddenly  came  upon  four 
bears.  He  shouted  at  them  and  waved  his  hat,  and 
they  started  down  the  mountains  at  a  furious  rate, 
overturning  flat  stones,  and  logs,  in  their  haste  to  reach 
a  place  of  safety.  Bears  have  been  hunted  many  ways 
in  Pennsylvania,  traps,  (the  writer  has  a  collection 
of  steel  bear  traps,  including  one  used  by  Seth  I.  Nel- 
son, the  premier  Clinton  County  bear  hunter,  who  died 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  37 

in  1905),  log-pens,  bear  pits,  dead  falls,  dogs,  dug  out 
from  the  Winter  quarters,  and  poisoning. 

A  list  of  the  great  bear  hunters  of  Pennsylvania 
would  sound  like  a  German  casualty  list,  pages  and 
pages  long.  Among  \  hose  whose  names  will  live  in  song 
and  story  are:  Bill  Long,  of  Clearfield  County;  Jim 
Jacobs,  *'The  Seneca  Bea'r  Hunter" ;  Edwin  Grimes, 
(frontispiece,  with  the  last  two  of  his  double  cen- 
tury of  bears,  as  described  by  Mr.  French)  :  Samuel 
Askey,  Center  County;  ''Old  Man"  Bennett,  Lycom- 
ing County;  Jake  Drumheller,  Northumberland 
County;  C.  W.  Dickinson,  McKean  County;  Seth  I. 
Ndson,  and  Seth  Nelson,  Jr.,  Chnton  County* 
David  A.  Zimmerman  arid  "J^^"  Zimmerman,  Union 
County;  Aaron  Embigh,  Clinton  County;  "Jake" 
Karstetter,  Chnton  County;  Frank  Dapp,  Lycoming 
County;  ''Abe"  Simcox,  Clinton  County,  and  among 
the  younger  generation,  Chauncey  E.  Logue,  now 
State  Game  Inspector,  of  Cameron  County,  who  in 
this  prosaic  day  and  generation,  has  nearly  Mty  bears 
to  his  credit,  and  he  is  less  than  fifty  years  old.  How- 
ever the  purpose  of  these  pages  a're  not  to  dwell  on 
the  slayers  of  bears,  except  those  who  hunted  accord- 
ing to  sporting  ethics,  but  to  give  the  case  of  the 
bears,  and  to  try  and  save  them  from  going  the  way 
of  the  moose,  the  elk  and  the  bison  in  Pennsylvania. 
No  animal  should  be  condemned  except  on  the  same 
carefully  weighed  evidence  which  has  been  accorded 
certain  so-called  noxious  birds,  by  a  series  of  stomach 
examinations. 


38  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

In  the  old  days,  Dr.  B,  H.  Warren  examined  tens 
of  thousands  of  bird  stomiachs,  and  in  pubHshed  re- 
sults gave  the  correct  economic  status  of  every  bird 
known  in  Pennsylvania'.  The  U.  S.  Biological  Survey 
performed  a  similar  work  at  Washington,  D.  C. 
However,  when  the  ranchers  and  rustlers,  in  order  to 
alibi  their  half -wild  dogs  decreed  death  on  the  coyote, 
the  wolf,  the  mountain  lion  and  the  prairie  dog,  no 
such  thing  was  done,  and  these  animals  are  being  done 
to  death  without  their  economic  status  having  been 
determined.  Yet  the  law  creating  the  U.  S.  Biological 
Survey,  which  has  now  become  an  appanage  of 
the  cattlemen  provides  "careful  examinations  to  de- 
termine the  economic  status  of  each  of  the  species  of 
the  faunal  life  of  the  United  States." 

If  as  at  the  present  time  a  deteniiined  onslaught  is 
made  against  the  Black  Bear  in  Pennsylvania,  sports- 
men and  naturalists  should  demand  a  series  of  stomach 
examinations,  taken  simultaneously,  of  b^ars  and  un- 
tagged dogs,  secured  in  same  territory.  The  location 
of  the  mutton  will  be  in  the  gorged  stomachs  of  the 
half-wild  dogs.  The  writer  is  interested  in  dogs,  has 
owned  and  bred  them  for  many  years,  blue  blooded 
dogs,  true  blooded  dogs,'  Airedales,  Russian  Wolf- 
hounds, Dalmatiaans  and  German  Police  Dogs  (with 
wolf  admixture)  at  various  times,  has  every  respect 
foir  a  good  dog,  admires  him  for  his  sagacity  and 
fidehty,  but  the  outlaw  dog,  whose  owner  never  feeds 
him,  and  leaves  him  loose  at  nights  to  forage,  is  an 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        39 

unfortunate  outlaw  that  has  no  place  in  the  whole 
gamut  of  protection. 

Probably  the  increased  prestige  and  respect  in  which 
t?he  State  Game  Commission  of  Pennsylvania  is  being 
regarded  on  all  sides,  will  do  much  to  lessen  the 
malignity  of  the  *'gaine  hogs"  who  seek  to  annihiliate 
all  living  things.  We  hear  less  of  the  stupid  view- 
point once  voiced  to  the  writer  by  a  wealthy  lumber- 
man's son  in  the  Northwestern  part  of  the  State. 
''What  good  are  bears?"  What  good  is  anything? 
Everything  that  God  made  is  good  and  is  here  for 
some  wise  end. 

The  bear,  as  started  previously,  has  an  economic 
value,  whereas  some  forms  of  life  thus  far  have  only 
demonstrated  a  sentimental  value.  And  a  sentimental 
or  aesthetic  value  is  a  mighty  one,  for  the  things  that 
belong  to  art,  and  wonderment  and  beauty  are  what 
make  us  cast  our  eyes  upward,  and  separate  us  from 
the  crawling  worm  that  reasons  not  on  the  glory  of 
this  surrounding  universe.  A  world  without  trees,  and 
flowers,  and  birds  and  animals,  would  be  bare  indeed, 
and  unfortunately  we  were  fast  coming  to  it  until  such 
names  as  Sproul,  Pinchot,  McFarland,  Shearer,  Van 
Valkenburg,  Herbert  Walker,  French,  Chathami,  Walter 
Darlington,  Rothrock,  Witraer  Stone,  Rhoads,  Dr. 
Warren,  Jonathan  Mould,  Enos  Jones  and*  Dr.  Kalbf  us, 
like  a  solid  phalanx,  bid  the.  despoiler  halt  in  the  name 
of  Conservation.  May  their  numbers  never  grow 
less,  their  souls  increase,  and  may  their  saving  force 
be  permanent  for  the  glory  of  Pennsylvania  Beautiful. 


40  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

The  great  work  of  conservation  for  the  future  branches 
off  in  four  leading  directions :  First,  Reforestation ; 
second,  Preservation  of  Wild  Bird  and  Ainjimal  Life; 
third.  Purification  of  Our  Streams;  fourth,  Protec- 
tion of  Mountain  Scenery  from  Quarrymen.  These 
are  the  Big  Four  of  Natural  Conservation,  and  not 
an  inch  should  be  yielded  to  the  interests  who  for  the 
glittering  dollar  would  re-establish  chaos  in  this  world. 
The  other  day  the  writer  had  the  opportunity  of  clasp- 
ing the  hand  of  that  stalwart  young  devotee  of  con- 
servation, former  Senator  Enos  M.  Jones,  of  Altoona, 
and  reminding  him  what  an  inspiration  he  was  in  the 
work  of  protecting  the  wild  life,  and  above  all  the 
natural  scenery  of  our  beloved  Commonwealth.  Never 
were  finer  words  penned  than  those  of  Senator  Jones, 
when  he  protested  to  Governor  Brumbaugh  against 
the  demolition  of  the  grand  rock  scenery  on  the  face 
of  Jack's  Mountain. 

"It  is  all  w'rong  for  the  rich  Commonwealth  of  Penn- 
sylvania for  a  few  dollars  of  passing  gain  to  destroy 
a  mountain  that  is  O'f  matchless  beauty  and  pleasure  to 
millions  of  persons."  That  is  the  creed  of  conserva- 
tion, the  greatest  good  for  the  greatest  numiber,  green 
forested  mountains,  pure  streams,  fish,  birds,  game, 
black  bears,  all  are  a  part  of  the  heritage  from  our 
fathers,  to  go  on  in  an  unending  sequence  to  our  chil- 
dren and  our  children's  children,  and  not  to  be  scuttled 
and  gutted  to  furnish  graft,  ill-gotten  gain  or  special 
privilege  for  the  few  of  any  one  particular  generation. 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OP  PENNSYLVANIA         41 

Give  the  bears  a  chance  to  go  their  way,  hunt  them 
in  a  proper  season  if  it  gives  you  sport  so  to  do,  but 
be  a  nian,  be  a  sportsman,  a  gentleman  and  don't  let 
the  destroyer  and  the  despoiler  sit  on  your  neck.  Penn- 
sylvania and  its  glories  are  for  us  all. 

The  learned  Missionary  John  Heckewelder,  in'  his 
dissertation  on  "Indian  Nations'',  reveals  the  kindly, 
half  whimsical  attitude  which  the  Indians  felt  towards 
the  wild  denizens  of  the  forests,  and  towards  bears  in 
particular;  would  they  could  be  emulated  by  some  of 
our  Potter  County  mountaineers  who  would  exterm- 
inate Ursus  Americanus.    He  says  : 

"A  Lenni-Lenape  hunter  once  shot  a  large  bear  and 
broke  its  backbone.  The  animal  fell  and  set  up  a 
most  plaintive  cry  something  like  that  of  the  panther 
when  he  is  hungry.  The  hunter,  instead  of  giving  him 
another  shot,  stood  up  close  to  him,  and  addressed  him 
these  words :  'Hark  ye !  bear,  you  are  a  coward,  and 
no  warrior  as  you  pretend  to  be.  Were  you  a  war- 
hior,  you  would  show  it  by  your  firmness  and  not  cry 
and  whimper  like  an  old  woman.  You  know,  bear, 
that  our  tribes  are  at  war  with  each  other,  and  that 
yours  was  the  aggressor.  You  have  found  the  Indians 
too  powerful  for  you,  and  you  have  gO'Ue  sneaking 
about  in  the  woods.  Had  you  conquered  me,  I  would 
have  borne  it  with  courage,  and  died  like  a  brave  war- 
rior, but  you,  bear,  sit  and  cry  and  disgrace  your  tribe 
by  your  cowardly  conduct.'  "  Heckewelder  asked  the 
nimrod  how  he  thought  the  poor  animal  could  under- 
stand what  he  said  to  it.     "Oh !"  said  he  in  answer, 


42         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

"the  bear  understood  me  very  well;  did  you  not  ob- 
serve how  ashamed  he  looked  while  I  was  upbraiding 
him?"  At  another  time  the  famous  Missionary  wit- 
nessed a  similar  scene  near  the  falls  of  the  Ohio.  A 
young  white  boy  named  Willie  Wells,  the  same  whom 
Volney,  the  French  traveler  speaks  of,  who  had  been 
when  a  lad,  taken  prisoner  by  a  tribe  of  the  Wabash 
Indians,  and  brought  up  by  them,  and  had  imbibed  all 
their  notions,  had  so  wounded  a  large  bear  that  he 
could  not  move  from  the  spot,  and  the  animal  cried 
piteously.  The  young  man  went  up  to  the  bear,  and 
with  seeming  great  earnestness,  addressed  him  in  the 
Wabas^h  language,  now  and  then  giving  him  a  slight 
stroke  on  the  nose  with  his  ram-rod.  Heckewelder 
asked  him  when  he  was  done,  what  he  had  been  say- 
ing to  the  dying  bear.  "I  have"  he  said,  "upbraided 
him  for  acting  the  part  of  a  coward ;  told  him  that  he 
knew  the  fortune  of  war,  that  one  or  the  other  of  us 
must  have  fallen ;  that  it  was  his  fate  to  be  conquered, 
and  he  ought  to  die  like  a  man,  like  a.  hero,  and  not 
like  an  old  woman;  that  if  the  case  had  been  reversed, 
I  would  not  have  disgraced  my  nation  a's  he  did,  but 
would  have  died  with  firmness  and  courage,  as  be- 
comes a  true  warrior." 

There  is  grave  danger  in  Pennsylvania  that  we  may 
disgrace  ourselves  in  our  handling  of  the  fate  of  the 
bear  tribe !  Even  while  bears  were  frequently  met  with 
in  all  parts  of  our  mountains,  trainers  with  trick  bears 
were  visitors  in  the  more  remote  backwoods  communi- 
ties.   A.  D.  Karstetter,  Postmaster  of  Loganton,  Clin- 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        43 

ton  County,  tells  of  both  black  and  cinnamon  bears 
brought  there  annually  by  travelling  mountebacks,  and 
how  the  children  were  excited  when  the  bears  were  put 
in  box  stalls  at  the  old  Washington  Inn  stables  for  the 
night.  In  Juniata  County,  near  McAUisterville,  where 
the  young  scions  of  the  Ulster  Scots  carried  out  a  tra- 
dition of  their  forefathers  by  holding  shooting  matches, 
like  the  festival  of  the  Popinjay,  described  by  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  a  whole  raft  of  these  blue-blooded  youths 
who  were  competing  for  a  prize,  with  the  old  Indian 
marksman  Shawnee  John,  late  of  Caiptain  Parr's  Com- 
pany of  riflemeij  as  referee,  were  thrown  into  panic  by 
the  sudden  appearance  in  their  midst  of  a  five-hundred' 
pound  red  bear,  from  Shade  Mountain.  They  were  so 
flustered,  that  they  allowed  Bruin  to  get  away  in  the 
excitement.  Unique  in  the  annals  of  bear  hunting  was 
old  Leonard  Faler,  (originally  Faillaires,  of  Huguenot 
descent),  of  Indiantown  Gap,  Lebanon  County,  a  not- 
ed Nimrod  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  who  always  tracked 
bears  to  their  caves  and  went  in  after  them,  killing 
them  with  his  bear-knife  in  hand-to-hand  conflicts. 

It  is  related  that  he  refused  to  speak  to  one  of  his 
sons  for  a  long  time  because  he  shot  a  bear,  and  in 
the  open.  Inoffensive  as  they  generally  are,  bears  will 
fight  when  their  rights  are  infringed.  John  S.  Hoar, 
of  Milroy  (Mifflin  County)  tells  how  his  grand- 
father, William  Johnson,  an  early  hunter  at  the  Kettle, 
in  Mifflin  County,  once  came  upon  a  panther  and  a 
bear  fighting  as  to  which  should  cross  a  certain  log 
over  Laurel  Run,  in  Detweiler  Hollow.    They  fought 


44  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

until  both  were  literally  torn  to  pieces;  and  Charles 
L.  Fleming  tells  of  an  almost  similar  bear-panther 
combat  near  Rock  Run,  Centre  County.  There  are 
few  more  observing  naturalists  than  Mr.  Fleming,  anr] 
he  has  made  a  life-long  study  of  the  habits  of  Penn 
sylvania  bears.  He  can  point  out  the  way  they  mark 
trees  with  their  claws,  and  break  off  sapHngs  in  their 
migrations  to  show  to  their  kind  the  direction  in  which 
they  are  traveling.  The  bear  wallows  on  Rock  Run 
are  very  popular  wi'th  the  ursine  tribe,  and  Fleming's 
descriptions  of  mother  bears  teaching  their  cubs  to 
enjoy  mud  baths  is  droll  and  of  unusual  interest. 
"Jake"  Zimmerman  is,  of  course,  another  authoriiv 
on  bear  wallows,  and  on  the  wandering  habits  ot 
bears  in  general.  He  is  fond  of  pointing  out  "The 
Haystack,"  a  high  mountain  on  White  Deer  Crt^ek, 
where  Martin  Blue,  a  fifteen-year-old  boy  from 
Orangeville,  Columbia  County,  shot  three  bears  in 
1870,  and  slid  them  down  the  side  of  'the  hill  on  the 
snow.  Bear  hides  have  rapidly  enhanced  in  value  of 
late  years. 

In  1914  the  writer  was  shown  a  superbly  furred 
black  hide,  killed  by  Miles  Hall,  of  near  Unionville, 
Centre  County,  son  of  the  famous  hunter,  Aaron  Hall, 
which  was  priced  at  $15.00.  Fifty  dollars  is  now  paid 
for  a  good  bear  rug,  mounted  with  the  head,  although 
a  few  years  ago  Charles  H.  Eldon,  Qf  Williamsport, 
sold  finely  mounted  rugs  at  $35.00.  Unmounted  bear 
skins,  in  prime  fur,  will  probably  fetch  $25.00  at  the 
present  time.     Bear  grease  is  in  great  demand  among 


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THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         45 

the  mountain  people,  being  used  for  rheumatism,  sore 
throats,  backache  and  other  ailments.  It  is  also  prized 
as  a  finishing  dressing  for  harness.  Bear  paws  are 
still  conspicuous  ornaments  on  many  backwoods  barns 
and  sheds  in  our  mountain  Counties. 

For  years  Aaron  Hall,  who  was  also  a  noted  hunter 
of  panthers,  wolves  and  deer,  maintained  a  stone 
hunting  lodge  on  Rock  Run,  where  he  would  invite  a 
select  coterie  every  season  to  hunt  with  him.  Those 
who  shared  the  great  Nimrod's  hospitaHty  had  to  be 
up  to  a  certain  standard  of  hardiness,  and  when  it 
was  intimated  that  Hon.  Coleman  K.  Sober,  then  a 
young  business  man  of  Lewisburg,  would  like  to  join 
his  party,  word  was  sent  that  if  he  could  stand  the 
pace,  he  was  welcome. 

The  initiation  the  first  day  consisted  of  a  twenty- 
three  mile  tramp  on  snowshoes  after  a  famous  old 
bear  named  Lame  Legs,  which  was  finally  run  down 
and  shot  at  his  lair  on  the  third  day  of  the  hunt,  after 
he  had  "circled"  his  pursuers  many  times  and  traveled 
about  sixty  miles.  At  that  time  Aaron  Hall  had  the 
skins  of  eleven  full  grown  panthers  at  his  camp,  and 
several  unusually  large  bear  hides.  William  J.  Emert, 
the  well-known  automobile  repairer  at  Youngdale, 
Clinton  County,  tells  how  in  his  younger  days,  about 
1885,  he  disturbed  a  "she-bear  with  cubs  out  McElhat- 
tan  Gap.  The  watchful  mother,  thinkincr  that  he 
meant  harm  to  her  young,  made  after  him,  and  **Bill," 
being  unarmed',  sprinted  down  the  Gap,  being  closely 
pursued  by  the  snorting  *'Musquaw"  for  a  dis'tance  of 


46         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

over  two  miles.  Chauncey  E.  Logue,  now  a  state 
game  protector,  captured  a  black  bear  in  Otzinachson 
Park,  Clinton  County,  before  the  law  forbidding  trap- 
ping these  animals  went  into  effect  in  1915,  and  fas- 
tened it  to  its  pen  by  a  stout  collar  and  chain.  During 
the  night  the  bear  snapped  the  chain,  worked  its  way 
under  the  heavy  wire  fence  of  the  park,  and  depar<!;ed 
for  'Jparts  unknown."  Just  one  year  later  Mr.  Logue's 
brother  killed  the  same  bear,  with  the  chain  and  collar 
still  attached,  near  his  home  on  Brooks'  Run,  in  Cam- 
eron County,  sixty  miles  from  where  it  had  made  its 
escape  a  year  previously. 

J.  H.  Cha'tham,  widely  quoted  authority  on  wild 
life  topics,  says  that  the  earliest  hunters  in  Central 
Pennsylvania  always  recognized  two  distinct  colors  of 
bears,  consequently  they  never  spoke  of  the  generic 
term  "bear,"  but  always  of  a  red  bear  or  a  black  bear. 
The  bear  pens  of  yesterday  will  be  die  ''Indian  forts," 
cromlechs  and  cairns  of  tomorrow.  For  a  numiber 
of  years  the  Simcox  boys,  of  Sugar  Valley  Hill,  Clin- 
ton County,  had  been  telling  of  an  "Indian  fort," 
built  of  stones,  on  top  of  Bald  Eagle  Mountain,  but 
when  the  writer,  accompanied  by  W.  J.  Phillips  and 
his  son,  J.  Earle  Phillips,  ^f  M^Elhattan,  visi'tcd  the 
supposed  "fortification"  iri ,  1916,  it  was  found  to  be 
a  stone  bear  pen,  built  on  tli^e  side  of  a  rocky  ridge  or 
fin  on  the  very  comb  of  the  fountain — the  type  used 
with  a  revolving  trap  door  ob  the  roof.  Nearby  the 
writer  found  an  ancient  iron  'bear  trap  with  chain  and 
drag  attached,  which  relics  are  now  on  exhibition  at 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  47 

"Restless  Oaks."  The  stone  bear  pen  was  carefully 
built,  and  will  doubtless  stand  for  many  years  to 
come,  'to  cause  surprise  and  conjecture  for  ensuing 
generations. 

For  sheer  nerve  in  photographing  a  live  bear  in  the 
open,  J.  Herbert  Walker,  former  scoutmaster  of  Lew- 
isburg,  now  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Scranton  "Re- 
publican," takes  the  palm.  Mr.  Walker,  while  out 
trout  fishing  in  April,  1918,  came  face  to  face  wi^h  a 
huge  black  bear,  with  only  a  rotted  log  between,  on 
Swift  Run,  Union  County.  Having  his  Kodak  with 
him,  the  courageous  young  naturalist,  instead  of  run- 
ning away,  photographed  the  open-mou^thed  monster, 
securing  an  excellent  negative.  Mr.  Walker  reports 
often  ha\ing  seen  bears  in  the  vicinity  of  Weikert, 
Union  County,  where  with  several  companions  he 
maintained  a  hunting  cabin. 

Mr.  Chatham  tells  of  a  huge  black  bear  that  visited 
the  village  of  McElhattan,  Clinton  County,  one  night 
many  years  ago,  carrying  off  a  hog  from  the  Chatham 
home,  although  his  grandfathers.  Hall  and  Chatham, 
two  old  hunters,  were  in  the  house  at  the  time.  It 
dragged  the  carcess  to  a  small  run  near  the  McGuire 
place,  where  it  left  it  until  the  next  night,  when  it  re- 
turned and  finished  the  repast,  although  during  the 
day,  dogs  had  run  the  bear  a  dozen  miles  or  more. 
Mountain  climbers  and  nature  lovers  with  romantic  in- 
stincts, coming  upon  the  rotten  timibers  of  old  time  log 
bear  pens  on  the  siunmits  of  lonely  mountains,  are 
apt  to  imagine  that  these  "log  cabins"  were  once  the 


48         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

homes  of  hermits  or  '"pioneers."  Such  a  ruin  can  ])e 
seen  near  the  cold  spring  on  top  of  North  Mountain, 
cHmbed  by  the  Pennsylvania  Alpine  Club,  October  15, 
1920.  There  is  another  such  away  up  on  the  slopes  of 
South  or  White  Deer  Mountain,  near  the  headwaters 
of  Lick  Run,  Union  County,  on  the  road  to  the  "Lost 
Valley." 

Bears  sometimes  like  an  indoor  life,  as  the  black 
bear  which  enjoyed  a  sight-seeing  tour  about  the 
streets  of  Woolrich,  Clinton  County,  in  1919,  had,  it 
is  said,  spent  the  previous  night  in  a  barn  attached  to 
the  celebrated  John  Rich  and'  Brother  woolen  mills. 
On  Oregon  Hill,  Lycoming  County,  about  1891,  a 
large  bear  went  into  a  barn  at  night,  but,  having  been 
noticed,  the  doors  were  slammed  on  him,  and  he  he- 
came  an  easy  captive.  Along  the  Juniata  River  it  is 
generally  considered  that  Solomon  Miller,  of  Ger- 
many V^alley,  Huntingdon  County,  was  the  oldest  bear 
hunter,  as  he  killed  a  bear  on  his  98th  birthday.  He 
ha^d  been  killing  bears  all  his  life,  and  was  noted  for 
bis  skill  in  the  chase  of  his  favorite  variety  of  game. 
A  hunter  named  Carrier,  at  Kane,  McKean  County, 
killed  his  forty-eighth  bear  in  1914.  Chauncey  E. 
Logue,  a  younger  hunter,  as  already  stated,  has  killed 
over  two  score  of  bears. 

Bears  have  always  been  objects  of  great  in'terest  to 
foreign  travelers  in  Pennsylvania.  Dr.  J.  D.  Schoepf,  a 
German  traveler,  shortly  after  the  Revolutionary  War, 
tells  how  they  annoyed  German  settlers  along  the  Blue 
Mountains,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Wind  Gap.    Thomas 


400-POUND  BEAR  KILLED  IN 
KAROONDINHA  STATE  FOREST,  UNION  COUNTY,  1920 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        49 

Ashe,  traveling  from  Ha^rrisburg  to  Pittsburg  via 
what  is  now  the  Lincoln  Highway,  in  1806,  killed  a 
bear,  and  saw  others  on  the  way.  In  a  Schuylkill 
County  publication,  the  obituary  of  a  celebrated  local 
Irishman  recounts  how,  the  first  night  of  his  arrival 
in  the  mountains  near  Tremont,  he  was  roused  from. 
his  bed  'to  be  shown  a  large  black  bear,  which  was 
prowling  around  the  premises.  A  woman  at  Burn- 
ham,  Mifflin  County,  in  1918  saw  what  she  thought 
were  two  black  dogs  attacking  her  garbage  pile.  It 
was  dark,  but  she  tried  to  chase  them  away.  Going 
closer,  she  discovered  that  she  was  "shooing"  a  pair 
of  mammoth  bears.  Needless  to  say,  they  finished 
their   feast  unmolested. 

As  to  weight  of  the  Pennsylvania  'bears,  250  pounds 
would  be  a  good  average  for  mature  specimens.  Most 
of  the  published  weights  are  estimates,  as  'there  are 
seldom  scales  to  weigh  the  big  brutes  after  they  are 
killed.  Five  and  even  six  hundred  pound  bears  have 
been  reported,  and  while  such  bears  have  sometimes 
been  killed  in  this  State,  they  are  only  isolated  in- 
stances. Forester  R.  B.  Winter,  of  Mifflinburg,  Union 
County,  has  reported  a  400-pound  bear  killed  in 
Karoondinha'  State  Forest  in  hunting  season,  1930. 

Edward  Wiger,  of  Elk  Township,  Sullivan  County, 
is  said  to  have  killed  a  bear  that  ''hog  dressed"  54-3 
pounds  in  1910.  M/artin  Emery,  of  Glen  Iron,  Union 
County,  is  credited  with  having  killed  a  500  pound  bear 
about  the  same  time. 


50         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

P.  L.  Webster,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Littletown, 
now  Bradford,  McKean  County,  who  died  several 
years  ago,  had  this  to  say  concerning  Jim  Jacobs, 
known  as  "The  S,eneca  Bear  Hunter" :  ''Jacobs  was 
a  good  Indian.  He  was  a  great  deer  hunter  and  a 
greater  bear  hunter.  He  killed  the  largest  bear  ever 
heard  of  in  the  memory  of  man  in  this  section.  It 
weighed  500  pounds.  Deer  and  bears  were  plenty  in 
those  days  hereabouts,  and  panthers,  too."  Jesse 
Logan,  an  Indian  who  lived'  past  the  century  mark, 
dying  in  1916,  and  who  resided  on  the  Cornplanter 
Reserva'tion  in  Pennsylvania,  was  also  known  as  a 
noted  bear  hunter,  and  killed  several  bears  of  ab- 
normally large  size.  Among  them  was  a  dog  bear, 
a  more  warlike  type  than  the  shyer  and  more  inof- 
fensive hog  bear,  and  more  akin  to  the  semi-mythical 
naked  bear,  already  spoken  of,  which  was  such  a  ter- 
ror to  the  Indians  of  New  York  State  and  Northern 
Pennsylvania  tha't  they  had  to  exterminate  it.  Bears, 
in  addition  to  loving  mud'  baths  and  wallows,  were 
noted  swimmers. 

Mr.  Chatham  relates  how,  on  one  occasion,  Joseph 
Montgomery,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Wayne  Town- 
ship, Clinton  County,  was  seated  on  his  front  porch 
when  he  saw  a  bear  come  down  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  Susquehanna  river,  near  the  mouth  of  Chat- 
ham Run,  and  start  to  swim  across.  The  width  of  the 
river  at  this  point  is  about  1,000'^  feet,  but  the  bear 
swept  along  with  measured  strokes  like  a  veteran  swim- 
mer.   Just  as  he  was  crawling  ashore,  and  had  begun 


JESSE  LOGAN,  WARREN    COUNTY 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         51 

to  shake  the  water  from  his  coat,  Mr.  ^lontgomery 
came  at  the  animal  with  a  fence  rail  and  beat  him 
to  death.  A  bear  was  once  seen  going  down  the 
Juniata  River  on  a  cake  of  ice,  but  this  was  an  in- 
voluntary change  of  location.  Rivermen  often 
brought  small  bears  with  them  on  'their  rafts  to  sell 
to  down  river  people  as  pets  or  curiosities. 

Colonel  James  W.  Quiggle,  a  Director  of  the  old 
Sunbury  and  Erie  Railroad,  grandfather  of  the 
writer  of  these  lines,  once  purchased  a  handsome 
black  cub  from  a  pilot  who  had  tied  up  his  raft  at 
Throne's  Eddy,  near  the  Colonel's  home  at  McElhat- 
tan.  The  animal  which  was  called  "J^^k,"  was  a 
great  pet,  and  would  follow  a  slowly  moving  carriage 
like  a  dog.  When  it  grew  larger  it  became  unruly 
and  was  chained  to  its  cabin.  It  hugged  a  Negro  serv- 
ant named  "Black  Sam,"  and  was  cute  enough  when 
kept  in  a  pen  to  bait  young  chickens  with  bread 
crum'bs  (to  enter  the  cage  through  a  hole  which  he  dug 
under  the  bars,  when  he  would  catch  and  devour  them. 

At  last  "J^^^"  became  so  unmanageable  that  he 
was  crated'  and  started  for  the  Philadelphia  Zoological 
Garden,  then  recently  opened  in  Fairmount  Park. 
On  the  way,  the  bear  broke  out  of  his  box  and  took 
possession  of  the  express  car,  which  was  filled  with 
dressed  poultry,  eggs  and  butter.  It  required  the 
lion  tamer  from  Forepaugh's  Circus,  then  in  the 
Quaker  City,  to  land  him  safely  in  the  Zoo,  where  he 
was  a  great  favorite  with  the  children  for  many  years. 

The  writer  has   often   heard  his   grandmother   tell 


62        THE  BLACK  BEAR  OP  PENNSYLVANIA 

this  amusing  story,  and  in  the  family  scrapbook  is 
her  account  of  it,  called  "J^ck,  or  the  Raftsman's 
Bear,"  which  she  wrote  at  the  time  for  one  of  Colonel 
John  W.   Forney's  newspapers. 

When  the  Pennsylvania  Alpine  Club  were  return- 
ing from  their  ascent  of  the  Red  Top,  one  of  the 
high  peaks  of  the  Seven  Mountains,  May  4,  1919, 
on  the  north  slope  of  Tussey  Mountain  a  bear's  hiber- 
nating place,  recently  vacated,  was  noted.  It  was  a 
round  hole,  dug  in  'the  clay,  on  the  steep  mountain 
side,  and  Mr.  Chatham  and  Andrew  Vonada,  an  old 
bear  hunter  with  the  party,  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  this  was  a  very  unusual  form  of  bear's  den.  As 
a  rule  they  hibernate  in  caves,  or  under  shelving  rocks, 
or  in  natural  excavations  under  the  roots  of  prostrate 
trees,  but  where  there  are  no  caves  or  other  suitable 
retreats  they  will  dig  themselves  in. 

Mr.  Chatham  tells  an  amusing  story  of  a  bear  hunt 
participated  in  by  three  old-time  Clinton  County  hunt- 
ers— Ma'joir  Hude  Chatham,  John  Simcox  and  John  Q. 
Dyce.  In  McElhattan  Gap  they  tracked  a  bear  to  a 
cave  beneath  overhanging  rocks,  and  their  dogs  soon 
brought  the  animal  out,  only  a  fair-sized  bear,  at  that. 
As  it  rushed  at  the  hunters,  Dyce's  foot  caught  in  a 
root,  and  he  fell  to  the  ground,  the  bear  almost  jump- 
ing on  top  of  him. 

At  the  critical  moment  one  of  the  dogs  caught  the 
bear  by  the  flank,  and  as  it  turned  its  head  Simcox 
shot  it.  Mr.  Chatham  says  'that  all  the  old-time  hunt- 
ers followed  the  chase  on  horseback.     One  day  old 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  53 

Adam  Staake  was  on  a  hunt  on  Kammerdiner  Run, 
Clinton  County,  when  he  saw  a  nice,  fat  cub  along 
the  road.  He  got  off  his  horse,  put  it  under  his  arm 
and  started"  'to  ride  home  with  it. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  mother  bear  appeared, 
running  after  the  horse  and  snorting  violently. 
Staake's  mount  was  not  noted  for  its  speed,  so  he 
threw  the  cub  to  its  mother,  and  continued  his  way 
without  further  molestation.  Captain  J.  G.  Dillin, 
noted  Conservationist^  says  that  Kelly  Aikey,  a  well- 
known  hunter  of  Hartleton,  Union  County,  was  hunt- 
ing foxes  one  day  in  February  in  the  Seven  Moun- 
tais,  when,  on  the  top  of  a  very  open,  blowy  moun- 
tain, he  came  upon  something  that  looked  like  a  closely 
woven  canopy  of  rhododendron  boughs. 

Tearing  it  apart,  he  found  within  a  she-bear  with 
two  small  cubs.  He  killed  the  mother  bear,  and  bring- 
ing the  cubs  home,  was  able  to  rear  them  on  the  bottle. 

Mr.  Chatham  states  that  there  was  no  particular 
date  for  bears  to  hibernate;  they  went  in  when  they 
felt  that  the  weather  had  become  steadily  cold,  and 
come  out  when  fthey  considered  the  winter's  backbone 
broken.  Captain  Dillin  says  that  a  bear,  like  a 
groundhog,  will  come  out  in  midwinter  if  it  is  warm 
enough,  for  example,  on  Candlemas  Day,  and  may 
even  venture  out  several  times  in  a  winter.  Mr. 
Fleming  states  that  Pennsylvania  bears  migrate  on 
regularly  defined  paths,  following  the  same  routes 
every  year,  which  is  also  a  conspicuous  trait  of  the 


54         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

l)ears  of  Europe.  In  the  Tyrol  there  are  many  "Baren- 
Wegs"  or  Bear  Paths. 

In  this  respect  they  are  also  like  the  wolves,  pan- 
thers, elk,  deer  and  bison,  which  had  their  favorite 
lines  of  travel  well  defined  through  the  woods. 
Wounded  bears  were  apt  to  attack  hunters  at  times. 
James  David,  veteran  surveyor  of  Clinton  County, 
father  of  Flavins  J.  David,  mentioned  previously, 
wounded  a  large  bear.  While  walking  along  the  path 
looking  for  it,  the  animal  rose  up  from  some  bracken 
where  it  was  lying,  and  bit  him  savagely  in  the  thigh ; 
he  carried  the  scar  to  his  dying  day,  which  occurred 
in  1892,  when  he  was  in  his  8Tth  year. 

It  is  interesting  to  many  how  in  Pennsylvania  the 
bear  got  switched  off  from  the  animal  which  sees  its 
shadow  in  favor  of  the  groundhog.  Ner  Middles- 
v.'arth's  version,  heard  from  the  Indians  and  con- 
densed from  the  story  as  it  appeared  in  "Juniata 
Memories,''  is  as  follows :  The  bear  and  groundhog 
were  hibernating  in  the  same  cave,  and  the  air  feeling 
so  cold  on  Candlemas  Day,  February  2,  the  larger 
animal  ordered  the  smaller  one  to  go  out  and  report, 
and  having  performed  the  errand  so  satisfactorily,  he 
was  always  afterwards  required  to  be  the  weather 
prophet,  hence  "Groundhog  Day." 

Mrs.  Robert  Alulford,  of  Xew  York  City,  states 
tha't  the  bear  is  still  the  Candlemas  Day  symbol  in 
Northern  New  York,  in  the  vicinity  of  Ogdensburg 
and  Watertown.  According  to  an  interesting  writer 
in  the  "Clinton  County  Times''  of  February  4,  1921, 


JAKE  KARSTETTER 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        55 

the  Candlemas  Day  legends  were  brought  to  the 
Pennsylvania  mountams  by  the  early  Swiss  settlers, 
and  quotes  the  following  from  an  almanac  printed  in 
Basel,  in  1672: 

"Selon  les  enclens  se  dit 
SI  le  soliel  clairment  luit 
A  la  Chandeleur,  vous  verrez 
Qu'encore  un  hyver  vous  aurez, 
Par  cette  reigle  se  gouverne 
L'ours   qui  retourne  en   sa  caverne." 

.  It  is  well  worth  noting,  also,  that  the  groundhog, 
which  our  Swiss  pioneers  may  have  substituted  for 
the  bear,  is  an  animal  akin  to  the  marmot,  one  of  the 
most  plentiful  and  popular  Alpine  mammals.  Chris- 
tian Bixel,  formerly  of  Bern,  the  ''City  of  the  Bears," 
remarked  ^that  he  found  himself  very  much  at  home 
in  the  highland  abode  which  he  took  up  on  the  moun- 
tain top  between  Pine  Station  and  Loganton  (Clinton 
County)  in  1867,  on  account  of  the  prevalence  of  bears 
and  groundhogs. 

He  killed  several  large  bears,  and  for  years  bear 
paws  nailed  on  the  ends  of  his  sheds  and  barns  were 
the  delight  of  travelers  on  'the  mountain  road,  and 
the  wonder  of  this  writer's  early  boyhood.  When 
asked  how,  single-handed  and  without  a  dollar,  he  had 
changed  a  rocky  and  forested'  mountain  summit  into 
one  of  the  best  farms  in  the  county,  Mr.  Bixel  mod- 
estly replied:  "A  man  can  do  anything  if  he  will, 
and  he  must." 

As  to  the  exactitude  of  the  groundhog's  prognosti- 
cations, the  same  writer  in  the  "Times"  adds :  "If  the 


56  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

shadow  appears,  the  little  animal  beats  a  hasty  re- 
treat, and  six  more  weeks  of  frigid  weather  moves 
in.  But  if  the  day  is  dull,  as  was  Wednesday,  (1921) 
then  the  groundhog  remains  on  the  surface  and'  spring 
is  here.  For  those  who  wish  to  believe  in  this  legend, 
we  would  remind  them  of  Groundhog  Day  in  1920, 
when  'the  little  animal  experienced  the  same  cloudy 
day  as  Wednesday,  and  do  you  remember  that  real 
blustery  weather  that  made  last  winter  without  a 
parallel  for  many  a  year  ?"  Some  feel,  and  with  good 
reason,  that  the  legend  has  become  '"twisted,"  as  a 
dark,  overcast  day  presaging  continued  winter  is 
more  reasonable  than  a  bright,  clear  day,  which  ought 
to  carry  with  it  the  intimjation  of  spring. 

Jake  Karstetter,  of  Loganton,  Clinton  County, 
known  as  the  "oldest  volunteer"  because  he  fibbed 
about  his  age  so  as  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union  Army 
in  the  Civil  War  as  a  sharpshooter,  was  a  brilliant 
bear  hunter  in  his  day.  Unfortunately,  he  mistook  a 
boy  on  top  of  a  tall  chestnut  tree  in  Sugar  Valley  for 
a  bear,  and  shot  him. 

For  years,  until  the  war  broke  out,  he  never  touched 
a  firearm.  After  "picking  off"  divers  Confederate 
Generals  and  Colonels,  he  was  at  length  captured,  and 
led  through  the  streets  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  with 
a  collar  and  chain  around  bis  neck  placarded  as  "A 
Wild  Yankee  from  the  North." 

Like  many  soldiers,  he  had  not  cut  his  hair  since 
enlisting,  and  many  aristocratic  Southern  belles,  ac- 
cording to  Willis  Reed  Bierly,  of  Harrisburg,  stroked 


CHESTNUT    TREE    IN    SUGAR   VALLEY    ON    WHICH 

"JAKE"  KARSTETTER  KILLED  BOY,  IN 

MISTAKE  FOR  BEAR 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        57 

his  long  beard  admiringly,  evidently  forgetting  that 
their  idols,  Robert  E.  Lee,  Stonewall  Jackson,  "J^^^" 
Stewart  and  N.  B.  Forrest,  were  similarly  bewhiskered. 

A  broadside  on  the  subject  was  sold  in  Richmond, 
and  Mr.  Chatham,  who  had'  seen  a  copy,  can  recite 
several  of  the  witty  verses.  Ka'rstetter  later  made 
his  escape  and  sniped  a  few  more  Confederate  digni- 
taries before  returning  home,  where  for  years  he  was 
a  familiar  figure  at  all  '"butchering  bees"  in  the  valley. 
"Jake"  Zimmerman  is  the  author  of  the  following 
intensely  interesting  anecdotes  of  early  Pennsylvania 
bear  hunters  and  hunting. 

The  confirmaJtion  of  his  story  of  the  "biggest  bear," 
by  old  Daniel  Mark,  born  in  1835,  of  Loganton, 
would  indicate  that  the  mammoth  bruin  despatched 

by  Charles  Engle  was  the  real  "grandfather  bear." 

I 

Jake  Zimmerman's  Reminiscences 

"About  the  year  1824  or  1825  a  man  by  name  of 
John  Lushbach  living  near  the  White  Deer  Furnace 
or  what  is  called  Forest  Iron  Works  in  Union  County, 
who  was  a  great  bear  hunter  and  trapper,  as  well  as 
a  deer  hunter,  tracked'  a  bear  into  a  hole  in  the  rocks 
on  Nittany  Mountain,  and  wishing  to  divide  the  sport 
among  his  hunter  neig^hbors  and  friends,  left  the  bear 
den  and  returned  to  his  camp  and  invited  Isaac  Robb 
and  John  Zimmerman,  the  father  of  David  Zimmerman 
and  grandfather  of  Jake  Zimmennan,  now  living  at 
Zimmerman's  farm  in  East  Sugar  Valley,  and  several 


58  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

others  along  White  Deer  Creek  to  join  him  to  return 
to  the  bear  den  and'  help  to  kill  the  bear,  each  party- 
having  a  hunting  dog  along. 

"When  they  came  'to  tJhe  bear  den,  old  'Daddy' 
Lushbach,  as  he  was  called,  set  his  old  flintlock  rifle 
up  at  a  big  white  pine  tree,  saying:  'Now,  boys,  I 
will  crawl  into  the  bear  hole  and  chase  him  out,  and 
you  fellows  shoot  him,'  and  he  crawled  into  the  den. 
As  soon  as  the  bear  got  the  old  hunter's  breath,  he 
gave  a  snarl.  Then  Lushbach  backed  out  of  the  hole 
and  said:  'Look  out,  fellows,  he  is  coming,'  and  out 
came  a  300-pound  bear,  and  in  the  confusion  John 
Zimmerman's  valuable  hunting  dog  was  shot,  and  the 
men  came  near  getting  into  a  general  old-fashioned 
fight  as  ito  whose  fault  it  was  that  the  dog  was  shot. 
After  some  tall  wrangling  and  'Daddy'  Lushbach 
shaming  them  all  out,  they  got  settled  without  a  fight 
and  went  home  rejoicing  and  had  a  great  bear  meat 
and  corn  bread  feast." 


"Another  noted  bear  hunter  and  trapper  by  name 
of  Jerome  Prinzegaff  living  at  High  Town,  now  called 
White  Deer,  (Union  County)  had  what  they  called 
'bear  pens'  built  along  White  Deer  Creek  and  White 
Deer  Mountain  as  far  up  as  fthe  Rock  Oak  Spring  an!d 
Kettle  Hole,  or  where  the  old  beaver  dam  was,  and 
many  a  bear  he  caught.  This  man  was  known 
all  over  the  country,  as  he  was  a  fine  harness  maker 
by  trade  and  made  most  of  the  harness  for  the  three 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  59 

and  four  or  six  mule  teams  then  owned  by  David 
Kaufman  at  «he  Forest  Iron  Works,  as  well  as  all  the 
collars  for  the  mules,  as  he  was  an  expert  collar 
maker." 


"Some  time  in  the  'TO's  a  party  trailed  a  bear  in  a 
deep  snow  from  White  Deer  Valley  to  the  Sugar 
Valley  Narrows  near  the  Rock  Oak  Spring  or  High 
Walls,  and  abandoned  the  trail  there,  and  Oscar  Huff 
and  another  man  came  up  the  pike,  took  the  trail  and 
found  the  bear  in  a  hollow  tree  still  in  sight  of  the  old 
pike  road,  and  killed  the  bear  and  went  home  happy." 


*'The  most  peculiar  thing  about  bears  is  they  always 
hole  up  when  real  cold  weather  sets  in.  They  go 
into  their  lair  real  w^obbling  fat  and  come  out  in  the 
spring  very  poor  in  flesh,  as  they  suck  their  paws  for 
nourishment,  which  extracts  all  of  the  fat  out  of  their 
bodies,  their  feet  being  very  tender  in  the  springtime, 
and  if  a  dog  gets  after  them,  then  will  soon  climb  a 
tree,  as  their  feet  won't  stand  much  running  on  rocks. 

"Another  remarkable  feature  about  bears  is  they 
have  their  cubs  in  February.  Until  that  time  the 
male  and  female  often  live  in  one  den,  but  when  the 
time  comes  for  the  cubs  to  arrive  the  female  bear 
drives  the  male  bear  out,  and  he  must  hunt  himself 
another  den,  regardless  of  how  cold  or  how  deep  a 


60  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

snow  there  is.     So  by  following  the  back  track  of  a 
bear  in  February,  you  will  find  the  mother's  den  with 

her  cubs." 

3fC  ^  3|C  3|C  .fC 

"David  Zimmerman  shoit  at  one  time  an  old  she- 
bear  and  three  cubs  of  about  thirty  pound's  apiece  on 
Sand  Spring  Mountain,  just  north  of  Sand  Spring, 
or  Joihn  Bobb  Camp,  now  occupied  by  the  Riverside 
Rod  and  Gun  Club. 

"Bears  travel  a  long  ways  when  once  routed.  W.  H. 
Treas,  or  'Captain'  Treas,  as  he  is  called  by  his 
hunter  friends,  once  took  a  track  at  Lake  Knob,  and 
followed  it  un'til  dark,  and  took  up  the  trail  next 
A.  M.,  and  the  bear  was  never  overtaken,  going  into 
Fourteen  Mile  Narrows. 

"Jake  Zimmerman  and  Frank  Hendricks  followed 
a  cub  one  time  for  seven  or  eight  miles,  and  in  the 
evening  the  cub  was  back  to  near  his  starting  place, 
and  Jake  concluded  fto  let  it  rest  and  get  a  party  to- 
gether and  make  a  chase  for  it  next  A.  M.,  which  they 
did,  and  at  a  certain  old  pine  snag  Jake  placed  Mr. 
Hendricks,  who  sliot  the  cub  in  less  than  an  hour." 


"A  man  by  the  name  of  Calhoun,  living  near  Ham- 
ersley's  Forks  on  Kettle  Creek,  Clinton  County, 
tracked  his  150th  bear  into  a  hole  and  set  his  gun 
down  and  crawled  into  the  den  and  blew  his  breath 
in  at  the  bear,  and  Mr.  Calhoun's  sweater  caught  on 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        61 

some  root  and  he  could  not  get  out  quick  enough,  and 
the  bear  pushed  him  along  out,  tore  his  swea'ter,  but 
Mr.  Calhoun  got  his  rifle  and  still  killeid  the  bear  be- 
fore he  got  very  far  away." 


•  **Not  to  lose  sight  of  wha«t  they  call  Bear  Wallows 
or  Bear  Lakes  on  top  of  White  Deer  Mountain  just 
norfth  of  Mile  Run,  there  are  two  or  three  deep  cold 
springs  where  the  bears  come  to  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember to  wallow,  and  where  one  can  see  trails  of  mud 
dug  out  through  the  brush  and  ferns  as  far  as  twenty- 
five  to  thirty  yards  distance,  jusit  like  hogs  coming 
out  of  a  wallow  hole.  There  are  a  few  old'  gum  trees 
standing  near  this  spring,  but  they  will  not  live  long, 
as  tihe  bears  and  cu)bs  have  broken  all  branches  down 
on  them  from  playing  up  and  down  the  trees." 


"The  biggest  bear  ever  taken  in  Pennsylvania  was 
killed  by  the  noted  hunter  and  hermit  of  Sugar  Val- 
ley, Clinton  County,  Charley  Engle.  This  bear  was 
started  away  at  the  head  of  Pine  Creek  (Tiadaghton) 
Lycoming  County,  crossed  near  Green's  Gap,  was 
found  in  a  lair  at  or  near  Pine  Creek,  Centre  County, 
a  distance  from  where  he  started  of  eighty-five  miles. 
Samuel  Engle,  the  noted  lumberman,  hauled  the  bear 
to  Jersey  Shore  in  a  two-horse  sled.  They  said  the 
bear  filled  the  Whole  sled  box  from  end  to  end.  It 
weighed  600  pounds." 


62  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Reminscences  by  Henry  Wren 

Henry  Wren,  Civil  War  veteran,  of  Loganton,  Clin- 
ton County,  born  in  183T,  says : 

''When  I  was  young,  about  44  years  old,  I  chased 
a  bear  out  of  'the  bush,  and  he  was  running  and  jumped 
over  a  log,  and  I  shot  him  in  his  hind  foot.  I  ran 
ahead  and  went  over  a  broken  out  tree.  It  leaned  over 
another  'iree  about  nine  feet  in  the  air,  and  the  bear 
ran  up  the  mountain  and  stopped  on  a  rock,  and  I  held 
my  own  ears  when  I  pulled  the  trigger.  My  own  foot 
slipped  and  my  bullet  broke  his  neck.  That  bear  is 
one,  and  the  other  bear  I  was  out  alone.  It  had 
snowed,  and  I  was  hunting  deer.  He  was  traveling 
along  and  I  thought  it  was  a  dog,  but  when  I  looked  at 
his  ears  I  got  down  on  my  knee  and  when  I  drew  my 
hammer  up  toward  it  he  stopped  and  I  shot  him 
through  the  head.     That  is  the  second  one. 

"All  this  happened  in  my  young  days.  If  I  live 
until  the  6th  of  March,  1921,  I  will  be  84  years  old. 

*'I  am  an  old  veteran  soldier  of  the  Civil  War,  a 
Corporal,  and  the  oldest  man  in  Loganton.'' 


Mr.  Karstetter's  Views 

A.  D.  Karstetter  states : 
"Daniel  Mark  says  that  a  crew  of  men  started  the 
largest  bear  that  ever  crossed  Sugar  Valley.     It  was 
started  in  Lycoming  County,  swam  the  river  near  the 


HENRY  WREN 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        63 

town  of  Jersey  Shore  and  came  across  to  Sugar  Val- 
ley. There  the  Nippenose  crew  gave  up  the  chase  to 
Charley  Engle,  brother  of  John  Engle,  and'  Sol.  Leo- 
pold, and  they  pursued  the  bear  and  took  him  through 
White  Deer  Creek  and  across  to  Penn's  Valley  Nar- 
rows. They  found  him  sleeping  behind  a  log,  and 
Charles  Engle  shot  it. 

^'The  bear  dressed  550  pounds,  and  was  of  'the  black 
species." 

"A  man  by  the  name  of  John  Derr,  of  White  Deer, 
shot  three  bears  in  the  White  Deer  Narrows  east  of 
Carroll  near  the  Lick  Run  Gap.  They  were  coming 
toward  him  and  were  in  a  fighting  mood,  but  this  old- 
time  hunter  ha!d  a  double  barrel  or  swivel  barrel  gun 
and  he  was  equal  to  the  occasion  and  he  first  dispatched 
the  large  one,  weighing  450  pounds,  and  that  angered 
the  other  two  so  much  he  had  to  climb  a  tree,  which 
he  only  did  in  the  nick  of  time,  as  they  were  coming 
for  him,  and  from  that  position,  after  considerable 
trouble  in  loading  his  gun,  he  shot  the  other  two." 


Bear  Stories  by  E.  A.  Schwenk 

Edgar  Austin  Schwenk,  slayer  of  the  famous  Red 
Bear,  under  date  of  February  5,  1921,  says: 

"Your  letter  just  came.  In  reply  I  am  glad  to  give 
you  a  brief  account  of  my  experience  in  bear  hunting. 


64  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Of  course,  I'd  rather  tell  it  to  you  than  write,  for  that 
would'  be  easier.  There  are  several  men  around  here 
who  had  more  experience  than  I  had  with  bears,  but 
I  shall  humbly  send  you  my  story.  I  have  had  lots 
of  experience  'in  following  bears,  but  never  had  the 
best  of  luck  in  getting  many.  They  always  follow  or 
go  on  the  worst  places  on  the  mountains ;  that  is, 
they  go  on  the  rockiest,  steepest,  brushiest  and  ugliest 
places  they  can  find  and  jump  off  logs,  tops  of  rocks 
to  fool  the  dogs  or  persons  following  them. 

*'AIy  first  experience  was  in  the  Kahl,  or  W'atergap 
(about  South  Central  Sugar  Valley)  when  I  was 
single  and  still  in  my  'teens.  We  were  hunting  foxes 
and  saw  the  bear  and  shot  him  diagonally  'through, 
breaking  three  ribs  on  one  side  and  two  on  the  other, 
piercing  the  liver,  then  the  dogs  followed.  We  treed 
him  on  nine  different  trees  before  we  got  him.  He 
would  jump  from  the  trees  or  try  'to  fall  on  the  dogs 
before  we  got  close  enough  to  shoot  with  our  poor, 
old-fashioned  guns  of  that  time.  I  had  one  of  the 
primitive  Spencer  guns.  At  one  place  he  jumped 
about  forty  feet  and  we  thought  that  would  kill  him, 
but  he  jumped  up  and  struck  the  dog  and  nearly  killed 
him;  finally  the  dog  worried  him  and  we  got  close 
enough  to  shoot  him  in  the  head.  He  was  a  black 
bear  weighing  about  250  pound's.  I  have  been  several 
times  in  dens  but  never  found  bears  in  them. 

''Another  bear  we  got  was  in  the  Second  Gap  below 
McCall's  in  White  Deer  Valley.  We  got  that  one 
while  hunting  deer  and  had  no  trouble,   for  a  good 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 65 

shot  brought  him    dowp.     He    weighed    about    200 
pounds. 

"We  shot  two  bears  in  Cowbell  Hollow  in  the  lower 
end  of  White  Deer  Valley.  These  were  black  bears*. 
Of  course,  I  helped  get  others  but  I  don't  remember 
anything  special  about  them  except  the  Red  Bear  I 
shot  on  the  Buffalo  Path.  This  one  I  saw  while 
standing  on  a  deer  crossing.  I  shot  him  through  the 
heart  with  a  .38  caliber  and  he  went  about  300  yards. 
Then  a  party  from  Mazeppa  (Boyersville)  Union 
County,  put  his  hand'  on  him  and  claimed  first  posses- 
sion. Of  course,  the  bear  was  dead,  and  I  should 
have  fought  a  low  rascal  like  that.  He  was  one  of 
the  finest  specimens  of  bears  I  ever  saw.  His  fur 
was  reddish  and  about  three  inches  long.  Our  party 
ought  'to  have  had  the  bear  if  the  common  honest 
custom  had  been  followed  of  letting  the  man  shooting 
the  first  shot  take  the  hide,  etc.  I  am  glad  that  you 
bought  it  and  will  preserve  it. 

''Those  interested  further  can  look  up  the  story  in 
your  book,  'Stories  of  Great  Pennsylvania  Hunters.' 
A  common  method  of  trapping  bears  is  building  pens 
for  them.  They  build  them  of  logs  and  bait  them, 
and'  after  the  bear  goes  in  regularly  the  trap  is  set  and 
they  are  caught.  Some  used  to  be  caught  in  large 
steel  traps  under  a  bait  of  sheep's  heads,  etc. 

Embighs  used  to  catdh.  many  bears  -that  way.  Old 
Charlie  Engle  shot  the  biggest  bear  that  I  know  of 
in  this  valley.  It  was  a  big  black  one  weighing, 
dressed    about    500    pounds.     He    used  to    be    good 


66         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

at  hunting  them  and  was  as  shrewd  as  they. 
He  used  to  track  them  and  -^hen  they  would  circle 
to  lie  down  for  die  night  he  knew  about  where  to  look 
for  them  and  often  would'  get  them  in  their  lair.  For 
example,  they  circle  to  the  right  and  come  around 
about  three-quarters  the  way  to  where  they  passed 
and  'then  they  lie  so  that  they  can  hear  anything  that 
might  be  following  them  or  might  follow  the  tracks, 
but  he  was  so  skilful  in  stealthily  following  them  and 
had  followed  so  many  that  when  he  found  they  were 
zigzagging  and  then  circling  'he  would  stealthily  cross 
diagonally  the  circle  and  more  'than  one  he  found 
lying  asleep  and  before  they  could  escape  or  even  get 
awake,  he  had  put  a  shot  or  two  into  them. 

MAN   TRACKS  — *► 

■*"  *  •"•  i  V  •""*"  ♦  J  S  ^ 

BEAR  TRACKSJL5-  *^n  ,-'i***f^*» 

*:^^^^#  «  * 

I  t 


^21* 


iVAO-t"" 


^  m  • 


"You  see,  he  knew  by  following  so  many  about 
the  custom  they  had  and'  could  judge  their  course. 
Of  course,  they  sometimes  'turn  to  the  left,  too.  When 
they  circled   to  get  back   close  to  their  first   tracks, 


THE  FAMOUS  RED  BEAR 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


67 


he  would  go  quietly  and  then  not  follow  tracks  unless 
he  missed  his  guess. 

"He  one  time  found  three  in  a  den  at  Second  Gap, 
and  shot  all  three.  My  brother  Harvey  helped  him 
fetch  them  home. 

"I  only  helped  to  kill  four  wild  cats  (two  myself), 
but  about  107  deer,  of  which  I  myself  shot  about 
tvyenty." 


Bear  Facts  from  Pennsylvania 
Newspapers 

Twenty-five  Years  Ago,  January  16,  1896 
A  Queer  Bear  Trap 

The  Baker  brothers,  -in  the  Black  Forest  region/ 
continued  to  use  their  beer  keg  trap — inaugurated  last 
Winter — with  great  success,  writes  a  correspondent. 
This  trap  is  made  by  driving  long  sharp  spikes  through 
the  edge  of  a  beer  keg,  then  placing  a  bait  on  the  bot- 
tom of  the  keg.  The  keg  is  then  chained  to  a  tree. 
The  bears  force  their  heads  past  the  spikes  to  get  at 
the  piece  of  meat  on  the  bottom  of  the  keg,  then  w^hen 
they  try  to  withdraw,  the  sharp  pins  hold  them  prison- 
ers. A  funny  incident  of  this  sort  of  trapping  is  re- 
lated by  one  of  the  Baker  boys.  One  morning  early 
this  season,  they  went  out  to  inspect  their  traps,  when 
they  found  one  of  them  missing.  The  chain  had  been 
forced  from  its  fastening.  After  a  half  hour's  search 
they  came  onto  the  thief.  It  was  a  ridiculous  sight, 
for  he  still  had  the  beer  keg  over  his  head  and  was 
dragging  the  chain  along.  He  heard  the  men  coming 
and  started  on  a!  remarkable  good  gait  to  get  out  of 
their  way.  They  expected  every  minute  to  see  the  old 
fellow  go  "kerplunk"  against  a  tree  or  sprawl  out  on 
the  ground  over  the  rocks,  but  he  did  neither.  Ex- 
cept for  stepping  on  the  long  chain  occasionally  bruin 

68 


ANOTHER  VIEW  OF  RED  BEAR 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  69 

made  good  time  in  direction  of  a  cliff  of  rocks  not  far 
distant.  Suddenly  he  stopped  to  listen,  then  turning 
'his  head,  the  secret  of  his  ability  to  travel  with  the 
beer  keg  over  ihis  head  was  out — the  old  fellow  was 
l<5oking  wath  one  eye  through  the  bung  hole.  Well, 
the  hunters  had  to  stop  long  enough  to  laugh,  then  a 
bullet  from  a  rifle  brought  bruin  to  the  ground.  When 
an  examination  was  made  it  was  found  that  bruin  had 
nearly  ''chawed"  a  hole  through  the  bottom  of  the  keg. 
If  let  alone  a  short  time  longer  he  would  have  had 
his  head  out  of  the  other  end  of  the  keg. — M,  Chausen^ 
in  Wellshoro  Gazette. 


Says  He  Saw  White  Faced  Bear  In  Woods 

Benjamin  Love  Took  After  Bruin  With  a  Rifle 
But  Lost  His  Trail 

While  out  in  the  woods  beyond  Woolrich,  a  few 
days  ago,  hunting  for  small  game,  Benjamin  Love,  of 
that  place,  saw  a  wild  animal  whidh  he  could  not 
identify  at  first  on  account  of  the  peculiar  looking 
head,  but  which  he  found  on  getting  closer  to  be  a 
bear  with  a  white  or  cream-colored  face.  Not  being 
equipped  for  big  game,  Mr.  Love  retraced  his  steps 
and  returned  later  with  a  rifle,  but  the  animal  which 
weigtied  about  200  pounds,  had  disappeared.  Thi«; 
k  the  first  instance  known  of  a  white  faced  bear  being 
seen  in  the  woods.     For  the  benefit  of  those  who  may 


70         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

think  Mr.  Love  was  "seeing  diings"  it  might  be  stated 
that  he  is  a  staunch  prohibitionist  and  never  indulges  in 
anything  stronger  than  sweet  cider. — Jerscv  Shore 
''Herald/'  ip2o. 


Took  Bear  for  Rock 

Austin  Confer,  formerly  night  track-walker  for  the 
New  York  Central  railroad  at  Surveyor,  below  Clear- 
field, 'had  an  unusual  experience  recently.  Austin 
spends  most  of  the  night  at  a  point  near  Surveyor, 
w4iere  bad  slides  often  occur.  A^bout  1  a.  m.  recently, 
he  heard  a  big  '*stone"  coming  down  the  side  of  the 
mountain,  and  it  landed  upon  the  edge  of  the  ties  of 
the,  main  track. 

Seeing  that  it  would  not  clear  a  train,  he  imme- 
diately placed  red  lights  and' then  hurried  back  to  re- 
move the  obstacle.  The  night  wias  quite  dafk,  and 
as  be  came  near  the  "stone"  he  saw  eyes  shining,  and, 
as  he  drew  a  little  nearer,  he  saw  that  the  "stone" 
had  hair  on  it. 

He  then  pounded  himself  slightly  on  the  foot  with 
a  crowibar  which  he  carried  to  see  if  he  was  awake, 
when  suddenly  the  "stone"  turned  into  a  bear.  It 
sprang  to  its  feet  and  ran  away  as  fast  as  it  came 
down  the  bank  of  tlie  mountain.  When  day-break 
came,  an  investigation  showed  that  bruin  was  walking 
along  the  top  of  the  steep  bank,  and  probably  slipped 
and  slid  down  to  tlie  bottom.    Considerable  blood  and 


FIERCE  JAWS  OF  RED  BEAR 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        71 

hair  were  found  on  the  ties,  all  of  which  went  to  prove 
that  bruin  was  knocked  senseless  when  he  struck  the 
tie  with  his  head. — Bellefonte  ''Republican/'  ipi6. 

*         -i         *         *         * 

Treed  Four  Hours  by  Bears 

William  SPORT,  Pa.,  Nov.  4. — Ernest  Horton,  of 
Montrose,  was  held  a  prisoner  up  a  tree  by  two  bears 
in  the  woods  near  T^eroy,  Bradford  County,  for  four 
hourS'  until  discovered  by  his  hunting  companions. 

Familiar  with  bruin's  liking  for  apples,  Horton 
climbed  into  a  wild  apple  tree  to  await  a  possible  visit. 
In  a  short  time  a  young  bear  appeared.  He  quickly 
shot  it.  That  was  his  last  shot,  and  as  he  was  climb- 
ing down  from  the  tree  to  summon  his  companions, 
he  sighted  two  other  bears  coming  toward  the  tree. 
He  returned  to  the  limb  on  which  he  was  sitting. 

The  bears  soon  discovered  the  dead  animal  and 
then  the  man  in  the  tree.  They  beseiged  him  until 
other  members  of  the  party  approached. —  (ipi6.) 


72         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Chas.  Slutterbeck  Kills  265-lb.  Bear 
In  Corn  Field 

While  Party  Armed  With  Winchesters  Is  On  the  Trail 

Bear  Walks  Upon  Young  Man  in  Corn  Field 

and  Is  Laid  Low  With  Shotgun 

A  265-poun'd  Black  Bear  walked  up  to  Charles 
Slutterbeck,  twenty-year-old  son  of  Arthur  Slutter- 
beck, of  Tusseyville,  while  he  was  husking  cqrn  on 
the  home  farm,  s'hortly  before  the  noon  hour,  Satur- 
day, and  the  young  man  without  the  least  pertur'ba- 
tion  seized  his  shot  gun  which  he  had  taken  to  the 
field  for  rabbits  and  let  drive  a  load  of  fine  shot  into 
Mr.  Bear.  The  shot  proved  a  good  one,  penetrating 
the  lungs  of  the  animal  and  causing  instant  death. 

The  bear  was  first  seen  by  Jasper  Weaver,  near 
Colyer,  an  hour  before,  'having  evidently  come  but  of 
the  Seven  Mountains.  Since  Mr.  Weaver  had  no 
hunting  license  he  had  no  legal  right  to  kill  the  bear, 
so  he  hurried  to  the  Emmett  Jordan  home  at  Tussey- 
ville where  Revs.  Bierly  and  Yergey  lare  making  their 
headquarters  during  the  evangelistic  campaign  in 
progress  at  that  place,  and  spread  the  news.  A  car 
was  soon  procured  and  the  Reverend  gentlemen,  Mr. 
Jordan  and  Mr.  Weaver,  armed  with  Winchesters; 
left  for  the  spot  where  Mr.  Bear  was  last  seen.  The 
bear,  however,  was  evidently  on  a  hiking  expedition 
and  was  clean  out  of  sight.     They  were  able  to  track 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         78 

him  in  the  soft  earth  but  not  speedily  enough  to  get 
in  a  shot  ahead  of  young  Slutterbeck. 

It  was  the  first  bear  to  be  seen  in  the  valley  for  a 
long  time. — Center  County  Reporter,  (ipid.) 

^  ?il  5JC  j|t  ^ 

Boy  Alone  In  Woods  Kills  503-lb.  Bruin 

14-Year.Old  Hunter  Calmly  Fires  Five  Shots  While 
Bear  Rears  and  Roars 

Special   Dispatch   to    The   North    American 

Smethport,  Pa.,  Nov.  17. — The  king  sheep-killing 
"bear  of  MeKean  County  is  dead,  five  shots  from  a 
.44  rifle  in  the  hands  of  Edward  Grifiith,  a  14-year-old 
old  Smethport  boy,  putting  an  end  to  the  raider's  life. 

Griffith  was  visiting  at  the  home  of  his  uncle,  Jerry 
McCarty,  who  lives  on  a  farm  one  mile  West  of  this 
place,  and  when  the  latter  told  the  members  of  his 
family,  in  fhe  presence  of  Griffith,  that  he  had  seen 
bear  tracks  in  the  woods  near  his  home,  the  young  lad 
became  greatly  excited.  He  asked  his  uncle  to  allow 
him  to  go  hunting  for  bears,  but  his  uncle  refused, 
fearing  for  the  lad's  safety.  Later  in  the  day  the  lad 
secured  the  uncle's  consent  and  started  for  the  woods 

He  was  in  the  woods  but  a  few  minutes  when  he 
sighted  a  big  bruin.  Lifting  his  rifle,  he  fired.  The 
animal  raised  on  his  hind  feet  and  roared.  Griffith 
never  flinched,  but  stood  stock  still  and  pumped  four 
more  bullets  into  the  monster. 

Griffith's  uncle,  who  had  heard  the  shots  from  his 


74        THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

home,  hurried  to  the  scene  and  found  the  bear  dead 
in  its  tracks.  The  bruin  was  quickly  dragged  to  the 
McCarty  home,  where  it  was  placed  on  tlie  scales, 
tipping  .the  beam  at  503  pounds. — (1916.) 


Bear  Plays  High  Jinks 

A  big  Black  Bear  one  diay  last  week  cut  up  high 
jinks  along  the  dinkey  road  leading  from  Orviston  to 
the  clay  mines  of  die  Hayes  Run  Fire  Brick  Company 
and  the  Centre  Clay  and  Brick  Company,  according 
to  George  High,  engineer  of  the  big  dinkey  engine. 
He  iand  the  crew  were  on  their  way  to  the  mines  when 
a  big  Black  Bear  crossed  the  railroad  track  ahead  of 
them,  took  a  look  at  the  engine  and  men  and  then 
ambling  to  a  safe  distance  sat  down  on  its  haunches 
and  watched  the  train  pass.  As  it  happened  Mr, 
High  and  his  crew  did  not  have  a  gun  with  them,  so 
Mr.  Bruin  inspected  them  at  leisure  and  even  waited 
while  they  backed  the  engine  up  and  came  to  a  stop 
opposite  him.  When  he  trotted  off  into  the  woods. 
Now  Mr.  High  carries  a  gun  with  him  on  all  his 
trips,  but  as  yet  no  bear  has  ventured  near. — Belief  onii? 
Gazette,  ipi6. 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        75 

Columbia  Co.  Boy,  18,  Kills  250-lb.  Bear 

Brings  Bruin  Down  With  One  Shot  After  Unsuccessful 
Trip  for  Birds 

Special   Dispatch   to   The   North   American 

Bloomsburg,  Pa.,  Oct.  16. — To  Karl  Hess,  18. 
son  of  C.  W.  Hess,  of  Benton,  went  the  honors  early 
this  morning  of  killing  the  first  bear  of  the  season 
in  Columbia  County. 

While  hunting  for  birds,  near  Divide,  he  had  little 
success  and  was  on  his  way  home,  when  he  saw  tlie 
bear  lumhering  toward  him  through  the  underbrush. 
One  well-directed  shot  struck  the  bear  in  a  vital  part. 
It  weighed  ^50  pounds. 

County  hunters  generally  report  a  fair  opening  day, 
but  few  got  the  limit. — (ipid,) 


First  Bear  of  Season  Is  Shot  In 
Seven  Mountains 

Special   to   The   Altoona   Tribune 

Lewistown,  Nov,  6. — Henry  Knepp,  of  McClure, 
shot  the  first  bear  to  'be  taken  this  season  in  the  Seven 
Mountain  section  of  Mifflin  County's  big  game  terri- 
tory. The  hear  was  a  large  one,  weighing  in  excess 
of  250  pounds,  and  was  shot  in  a  wild  apple  orchard 
near  the  home  of  Martin  Wert,  w'hile  feeding  on  the 
wild  fruit.  Mr.  Wert,  an  old  resident  of  this  wild 
section  of  the  Seven  Miountains,  says  food  for  the  wild 


76         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

creatures  is  exceedingly  scarce  this  season  and  they 
will  be  compelled  to  come  to  the  verge  of  civilization 
during  the  big  game  season  in  order  to  obtain  food 
and  as  a  result  the  slaughter  will  be  great. —  (rpid.) 

>it  :}c  *  -tc  :;: 

"^Xew"  Fosnot's  Memories 

The  late  Lew  C.  Fosnot,  the  brilliant  Editor  of  the 
"Record  and  Star"  of  Watsontown,  Northumberland 
County,  makes  the  following  comment  on  the  Zimmer- 
man family  of  bear  hunters,  whose  hospice,  on  the 
top  of  South,  or  White  Deer  Mountain,  at  the  head- 
waters of  Zimmerman's  Run,  was  for  years  a  favorite 
resort  for  the  veteran  journalist  and  sportsman  and 
his  friends : 

"No,  I  am  not  yet  through  with  tlie  Zimmerman 
family  of  East  Sugar  Valley.  The  prowess  of  'Uncle 
Dave'  Zimmerman  as  a  hunter  of  bears  and  his  social 
and  hospitable  qualifications  have  been  outlined,  but 
I  am  not  going  to  forget  his  good  wife  and  willing 
helpmeet  'Mammy'  Zimmerman,  as  she  was  familiar- 
ly called.  She  was  a  typical  pioneer  housewife,  and 
faithfully,  imcomplainingly  shared  with  her  husband 
all  the  hardships,  discomforts  and  laborous  duties  iur 
cident  to  making  and  maintaining  a  home  in  the  back- 
woods. The  raising  of  a  large  family  of  stalwart, 
hearty,  industrious  children,  who  have  proven  an 
honor  to  their  parents  and  become  highly  respected 
citizens  of  the  State  and  community,  is  not  the  least 
credit  due  to  this  remarkable  lady." 


"JIM"  JACOBS, 
•THE  SENECA  BEAR  HUNTER' 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        77 

"Quiet  and  unassuming,  'Mammy'  Zimmerman 
was  wonderfully  adept  in  housekeeping  duties,  a  most 
excellent  cook  and  with  a  knack  of  preparing  a  meal 
in  record-breaking  time  and  maintaining  her  genial 
good  nature  under  the  most  trying  circumstances.  A 
dozen  or  more  hungry  hunters  would  crowd  into  the 
Zimmerman  home  without  notice  at  any  time,  to  in- 
variably find  a  cordial  welcome  and  a  good,  Substantial 
supper  ready  for  them  within  an  hour.  That  the 
same  conditions  prevail  at  the  Zimmerman  home  to- 
day is  no  doubt  largely  due  to  the  example  set  by 
this  good  old  lady,  who  will  be  ever  held  in  kindly 
remembrance  by  all  who  have  partaken  of  her  un- 
alloyed hospitality. 


*'By  the  way,  the  recent  blizzard  and  snow  storms 
will  not  make  the  Zimmerman  home  a  very  desirable 
place  of  residence  for  the  unacclimated  citizen.  With 
a  foot  of  snow  on  the  ground  previous  to  the  fall  of 
the  14th  inst.,  which  would  add  nearly  two  feet  more, 
the  situation  loOks  decidedly  unpleasant.  But  with  an 
amply  stocked  cellar  and  larder  and  full  barns,  which 
is  the  rule  of  the  genial  'Jake'  to  maintain  at  all 
times,  outside  of  the  fact  that  he  may  be  deprived  of 
his  favorite  North  American  daily  paper  and  other 
communication  with  the  outside  world  for  a  few  days, 
he  and  his  estimable  family  will  not  want  for  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  can  laugh  at  the  ground-hog- 
gish weather." 


78  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Big  Bear  Killed  by  Hunters  Near  Olean 
In  Jim  Jacobs'  Old  Hunting  Country 

Animal  Gives  Dog  Vicious  Fight  Before  Bullets  Ends 
Its  Life 

Olean,  (N.  Y.)  Feb.  8. — A  big  black  bear  was 
killed  in  the  section  southwest  of  this  city  yesterday. 
The  animal's  "tracks  were  seen  Candlemas  Day  by 
Chris  and  William  Gabler,  who  were  fox  hunting. 
Bruin  escaped  that  day,  as  the  hunters  carried  only 
light  shells  for  the  small  animails.  They  returned  to 
trail  the  bear  yesterday,  killing  it  after  a  three  hours' 
chase. 

The  Gablers  started  out  early  yesterday  morning. 
They  were  accompanied  by  two  well-trained  hunting 
dogs,  and  finding  tracks  along  the  old  bear  trail,  they 
followed  them  to  Rice  Brook,  near  Irving  Mills,  back 
of  Big  Red  House.  The  section  is  one  of  the  wildest 
and  most  desolate  pieces  of  country  in  'this  part  of 
the  state.  It  is  in  the  territory  that  is  considered  for 
the  proposed  state  park. 

The  dogs  were  far  ahead  of  the  men,  and  they  at- 
tacked the  bear  when  they  caught  up  with  the  wild 
animal.  Snarling  viciously,  the  animal  returned  the 
attack,  and  a  lively  scrimmage  in  the  snow,  that  lasted 
for  some  minutes,  followed.  The  dogs  were  bowled 
back  repeatedly  by  the  bear's  big  paws  but  they  were 
pushing  bruin  hard  when  the  men  reached  the  place. 
The  hungers    poked    their   guns    into    the    struggling 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         79 

mass,  and  after  five  discharges  the  bear  was  dead.     It 
weighed  175  pounds. 

Olean  residents  will  have  an  opportunity  to  obtain 
bear  meat  tomorrow.  The  animal  is  hanging  from 
hooks  in  the  Adolph  Ahrens  meat  market,  at  801 
West  State  Street,  and  it  will  be  cut  up  and  sold,  it 
was  said.  The  skin  is  fine,  soft  and  silky,  and  one  of 
the  most  valuable  ever  taken  around  here. —  (ip^i.) 

sK  :is  H«  *  * 

More  from  Jake  Zimmerman 

Under  date  of  February  9,  1921,  "J^^e"  Zimmer- 
man sends  four  more  bear  stories  and  other  valuable 
information,  as  follows : 

Bear  Story  No.  1 

About  September,  1862,  David  Zimmerman,  the 
noted  hunter,  had  taken  some  sheep  to  raise  on  the 
shares  from  a  man  by  name  of  'Squire  John  Price, 
and  one  night,  while  he  (Mr.  Zimmerman)  was  sound 
asleep  a  bear  came  into  his  yard  and  took  one  of  his 
nice  sheep  and  dragged  it  out  the  road  and  up  along 
the  fence  into  the  brush  and  covered  it  up  with  leaves 
and  sticks.  Mr.  Zimimerman  often  heard  that  a  bear 
would  come  back  for  the  balance  of  his  kill  about 
4  o'clock  P.  M.,  but  David  had  borrowed  a  clover  seed 
cradle  for  that  day  only  and  he  thought  the  bear 
would'  not  come  till  after  dark  on  account  of  him  cut- 
ting clover  seed  just  inside  of  the  field  from  where 
the  bear  had  'to  come  for  !his  meat.     W'hen  Mr.  Zim- 


80        THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

merman  mowed  up  to  the  fence  he  took  a  stone  and 
went  to  fasten  his  scythe  on  the  cradle,  and  then  he 
heard  the  bear  run  away  from  the  sheep  carcass. 
Then  he  put  the  dog  on  the  bear  but  that  was  all 
there  was  to  it — ^one  sheep  less. 

Mr.  Zimmerman  kept  the  rest  of  the  sheep  until 
the  following  summer,  when  the  bears  ate  up  all  the 
nice  young  lambs,  as  well  as  some  of  the  older  ones. 
Mr.  Zimmerman  loaded  the  rest  of  the  sheep  into  the 
ox  wagon,  and  his  son,  Jake,  took  them  out  to  'Squire 
Price.  Mr.  Zimmerman  never  tried  to  raise  sheep 
from  that  time  on,  which  goes  to  show  that  bears  are 
fond  of  sheep  meat. 


Bear  Story  No.  2 

About  the  year  1871  a  High  German  by  'the  name 
of  Henry  Walters  lived  at  the  old  Binger  place, 
two  and  a  half  miles  west  of  the  Fourth  Gap,  now  on 
the  Bald  Eagle  State  Forest.  This  man,  Mr.  Walters, 
had  gone  afoot  down  to  Elimsport  and  on  his  way 
home  it  got  dark  on  him  aibout  at  the  old  Hoffey  mill 
but  the  moon  was  shining  and  when  Mr.  Walters  got 
up  to  about  the  Hogback  road,  now  known  as  Hunter's 
Spring,  he  saw  what  he  supposed  to  be  a  big  colored 
man.  He  afterwards  told  Mr.  Zimmerman  that  he 
had  seen  a  big  Negro  standing  alongside  of  the  road 
and  the  man  never  said  a  word,  and  Zimmerman  told 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA         81 

him  that  it  was  no  colored  man,  but  a  huge  bear.  Then 
Wakers  said  if  'he  had  known  that  he  would  have 
killed  himself  running. 

(Bears  walking  about  erect  in  the  woods  may  be 
the  origin  of  some  of  the  gorilla  stories  prevalent  in 
Central  Pennsylvania,  1920-1921.— H.  W.   S.) 


Bear  Story  No.  3 

As  late  as  1912  or  1913  Dr.  A.  T.  Dewitt,  a  fine  old 
gentleman,  whose  greatest  delight  was  *to  be  in  the 
woods  looking  for  bears,  foxes,  skunks,etc.,  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  in  trapping  at  Zimmerman's 
farm  with  his  friend',  Jake  Zimmerman,  but  he  never 
caught  a  bear  ajt  Jake's,  and  took  up  his  trapping  for 
bears  in  Columbia  County  at  or  near  Elk  Grove, 
where  he  built  a  bear  pen. 

One  day  he  went  up  to  the  pen  and  crawled  in 
himself  to  arrange  something  at  the  back,  and  in  some 
way  the  trap  sprung  and  penned  the  old  doctor  in 
and  when  night  came  the  people  he  was  stopping  with 
went  to  look  after  the  old  trapper  and  found  him 
caught  in  his  own  bear  pen.  When  tihey  came  up  to 
the  pen  with  a  lantern  the  old  doctor  said,  *' What 
are  you  fellows  after?"  and  they  said  they  were  look- 
ing for  him.  Then  he  said':  "Oh,  I  am  alright,"  and 
so  he  was  alright— a,  prisoner  in  his  own  bear  pen. 
But  he  got  his  "heart's  desire"  afterwards  by  catch- 
ing a  nice  150-pound  bear  in  his  trap  or  pen,  and  it 


82         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

is  said  nearly  his  last  request  before  he  died  was  to 
see  this  bear  skin,  which  he  had  made  into  a  rug. 

Bear  Story  No.  4 

In  November,  1915,  the  following  party  of  hunters 
were  stopping  at  the  Zimmerman  farm,  their  names 
being : 

Russell  C.  Smith,  Charles  Harris  and  John  Street, 
of  Philadelphia;  Claud  M.  Hower,  Lost  Creek, 
Schuylkill  County ;  Walter  Berkelbach,  Shaft,  Schuyl- 
kill County;  A.  H.  Feterolf,  Mt.  Carmel ;  M.  F. 
Wolf,  Hernd'on;  I.  S.  Wolf,  Sunbury;  William 
Christian,  W.  T.  Speicer,  Ed.  Rudy  and  F.  B.  Evans, 
of  Danville,  and  several  others. 

While  out  looking  for  deer  signs  in  a  fresh  track- 
ing snow,  they  came  across  some  new  bear  tracks 
which  excited  the  whole  party,  and  all  Ihands  got 
ready  to  have  a  real  old-fashioned  bear  hunt,  making 
out  how  they  would  attack  the  bear.  As  the  track 
was  only  a  small  cub  track,  the  suspicion  of  some  of 
the  party  was  aroused  and  upon  clo^e  examination 
it  was  found  the  bear  'tracks  were  made  by  Jake 
Zimmerman's  daughter  Hilda,  then  eleven  years  old. 
So  after  some  great  laughing  and  guying  one  another 
the  bear  lliunt  was  abandoned,  the  party  not  forgetting 
the  joke  played  en  them  by  Hilda  to  this  day — 1921. 

Russell  C.  Smith  visited  the  Zimmerman  farm  just 
a  short  time  ago,  where  he  recognized  the  girl  and  had 
a  good  laugh  over  it. 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA  83 

Bears'  Grease,  etc.  , 

Bear  hides  sold  as  high  as  $40.00  for  a  large  one, 
twenty-five  to  forty  years  ago.  The  price  at  the  pres- 
ent time  is  from  $10.00  to  $30.00,  according  to  size. 
The  bear's  grease  or  bear's  oil  is  good  for  many  uses, 
one  for  limbering  up  stiff  joints  and  rheumatism. 
The  Indians  used  lots  of  it  for  rheumatism.  It  has 
been  said  that  if  a  person  uses  too  much  bear's  oil 
on  his  joints  it  limbers  tlhe  joints  so  much  that  a 
person  can't  stop  walking.  Indians  used  the  fat  of 
bears  to  anoint  and  darken  <their  complexions.  Our 
old  pioneers'  wives  and  daughters  used  bear's  oil  as 
a  hair  dressing,  as  the  oil  gives  the  hair  a  very  fluffy 
and  rich  appearance,  and  makes  the  hair  very  soft. 
The  old-time  mountain  girls  were  all  noted  for  their 
wonderful  heads  of  hair. 

"Poody"  Lovett's  Bear 

It  would  not  be  correct  to  wind  up  this  book  with- 
out relating  the  story  of  "Poody"  Lovett's  bear,  as 
told  by  W.  J.  Phillips,  of  McEl'hattan,  Clinton  County. 
Lovett,  a  well  known  mountain  character  living  near 
the  head  of  Plum  Run,  a  branch  of  Chatham's  Run. 
(Clinton  County),  while  out  with  his  industrious  wife 
cutting  logs,  encountered  a  large  bliack  bear  in  the 
woods.  Not  having  any  ropes  or  chains,  the  wily 
woodsman  promptly  took  off  his  "galluses"  and  made 
an  improvised  collar  for  the  animal.  Then  he  ordered 
his  wife  to  run  home  to  get  a  dog  collar  and  chain. 


84         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

Until  .the  good  woman  returned  the  bear  had  the 
suspenders  pretty  well  torn  to  pieces,  and  Lovett's 
trousers  were  hanging  in  bunches  about  his  ankles — 
but  he  still  held  on  to  the  bear.  After  another  lively 
tussle  the  collar  was  put  around  its  neck  and  the 
animial  led  home  in  triumph.  He  kept  it  chained  by 
his  woodshed  alongside  the  public  road,  where  it  was 
a  familiar  object  for  a  year  or  two,  becoming  well 
known  to  all  who  frequented  the  "Plum  Run  Road." 
Many  persons  journeyed  from  Lock  Haven  and  Jersey 
Shore  to  get  a'  look  at  "Poody  Lovett's  Bear/"  and 
it  was  the  subject  of  numerous  newspaper  stories,  one 
afnong  them  if  we  mistake  not  from  the  gifted  pen  of 
late  Jacob  K.  Huff,  ^'Faraway  Moses,"  the  father  of 
Myron  Reed  Huff,  of  the  Editorial  Staff  of  the  Al- 
toona  Times  Tribune.  Eventually,  Mr.  Lovett  decid- 
ed to  dispose  of  his  shaggy  pet,  selling  it  to  good  ad- 
vantage to  a  private  zoological  garden.  There  is  hard- 
ly a  night  passes,  but  Grandpa  Phillips  is  called  on 
to  tell  the  story  of  ''Poody"  Lovett  and  his  bear  to  his 
little  granddaughter,  Rae,  who  is  only  one  of  many 
children  who  love  to  hear  the  story  recounted.  Mr. 
Lovett  and, his  wife  still  reside  at  the  mountain  home 
in  the  prime  of  life  and  vigor. 

-iJ  5j£  5JC  3|»  5jC 

Last  Bear  In  Blue  Mountains 

Prof.   Nevin  W,  Moyer,  of  Linglestown,  Dauphin 
County,  writes  under  date  of  February  18,  1921: 
Today  I  secured  for  you  the  story  of  the  killing 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        85 

of  a  monstrous  bear  in  our  parts  in  1910,  The  bear 
was  'brought  in  by  Grant  Hummer,  who  ran  the  Shells- 
ville  hotel,  East  Hanover,  Dauphin  County,  Pa.,  a 
short  distance  East  of  Linglestown. 

Mr.  Hummer,  who  is  of  -an  old  stock,  knew  that 
this  would  be  a  rare  treat  to  the  public,  so  he  had 
special  bear  suppers  announced  where  many  persons 
took  advantage  of  tasting  the  meat  of  so  rare  an  animal, 
for  these  parts.  There  was  never  anything  left  over 
for  the  landlady  knew  how  to  prepare  the  meat,  so 
that  every  person  that  partook,  came  away  happy. 

The  bear  was  seen  as  far  South  as  the  First  Moun- 
tain, just  back  of  Linglestown,  for  at  least  two  years 
before,  but  it  alw^ays  happened  when  seen,  that  the 
person  was  not  prepared  to  kill  a  bear.  He  was  seen 
West  as  far  as  the  George  Unger  clearing,  where  Mr. 
Unger  saw  him,  himself,  but  was  not  prepared  for 
game  of  that  kind.  Then  he  traveled  as  far  East  on 
same  mountain  as  Heckert's  Gap.  Rumor  was  high 
there  for  a  time  that  there  were  two.  Now  comes 
the  question,  did  the  one,  if  there  were  two,  escape. 

During  these  two  years,  mountain  roamers  were 
not  as  plentiful  as  since,  and  when  they  did  roam  they 
began  to  prepare  themselves  pretty  well  for  Mr. 
Bruin.  Finally,  Mr.  Smith  and  son  were  the  lucky 
fellows. 

Mr.  Hummer  had  a'  coat  made  out  of  its  hide,  and 
it  is  a  dandy. 

:]«  j|c  ^  :)(  ^ 

One  day  John  Fox,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  one  of  the  early  Fox  settlers,  had  been 
out  on  the  first  mountain  cutting  wood,  say  at  least 


86         THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

75  years  ago,  after  his  day's  work  was  done,  he 
started  down  the  South  side  of  the  mountain.  Be- 
fore he  had  gone  very  far  he  saw  a  Mr.  Bruin  coming 
his  way.  Mr.  Fox  hid  behind  a  thick'  tree  and  got 
ready  with  his  axe  for  an  a'ttack.  Before  the  bear  got 
very  near  he  smielled  Mr.  Fox,  then  he  changed  his 
direction  and  made  haste  to  get  away. 

H:  H'  H^  H^  H< 

Mr.  George  A.  Unger,  who  is  in  his  54th  year,  has 
his  great-grand  father's  large  bear  trap.  With  its 
double  spring,  double  claw  clamp  catchers  and  the 
tripple  pointed  hook,  which  drug  and  caught  at  roots, 
to  prevent  the  bear's  rapid  progress  to  get  away  after 
caught.     It  is  a  cracker- jack. 


I  have  bear  teeth  that  were  used  by  the  Indians 
as  necklaces.  Some  have  holes  bored  through  and 
others  grooves  cut  around.  It  was  said  whenever  an 
Indian  hunter  killed  a  ferocious  animal  that  he  ran 
the  risk  of  losing  his  own  life,  he  took  one  tooth  out 
of  its  mouth  and  placed  it  on  Ihis  neck  as  a  token 
of  a  brave  hunter.  These  teeth  and  other  rare  relics 
I  found  in  Indian  mounds  and  have  them  in  my 
private  collection. 

My  father,  B.  F.  Moyer,  told  a  bear  story,  but  I 
am  afraid  I  cannot  recall  it  any  more.  Perhaps  you 
can  put  it  together. 


LAST  BLACK  BEAR  KILLED  IN  BLUE  MOUNTAINS 
NEAR  HARRISBURG  IN  1910 


THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA        87 

One  time,  two  fellows  were  out  in  a  woods  or 
mountain,  and  they  were  chased  by  a  bear.  They 
made  for  a  hollow  tree,  the  one  fellow  dived  into  it 
and  started  to  crawl  up,  the  other  fellow  hid  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  tree.  \Mien  the  bear  reached  the  tree, 
he  crawled  into  the  hole  after  the  fellow  inside.  At 
this  time  the  fellow  on  the  outside  grabs  Mr.  Bear  by 
the  tail,  and  starts  to  pull,  to  get  him  back.  The  bear 
was  so  large  that  he  filled  up  the  hole  very  well.  Upon 
this  the  fellow  inside  calls,  and  wanders  what  darkens 
the  hole.  The  answer  was,  "if  the  tail  hold  slipS;  you 
will  find  ouft  what  darkens  the  hole."    ^ 


Linglestown  Men  Have  Hot  Fight 
With  Large  Bear 

Animal    Turns  On  Its  Assailants  After  Being  Shot, 

Son  Saves    Father — Seven   Bullets   Required    to 

Bring  Career  of  Bruin  to  End.      Weight  300 

Pounds.     Arrival   of   Carcass    In  Town 

Creates    Greatest   Excitement 

Special   to    The   Harrisburg    Telegraph 

Linglestown,  Pa.,  Dec.  15,  1910. — After  an  excit- 
ing encounter  with  a  large  black  hear,  Frank  Smith 
and  his  son,  John,  who  reside  on  the  Daniel  Cahoe 
farm,  near  Linglestown,  arrived  in  the  town  today, 
bringing  with  them  the  carcass  of  the  bear  as  a  trophy 
of   the   most   thrilling   hunting  episode  that   has    oc- 


88  THE  BLACK  BEAR  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

currecl  in  this  vicinity  since  the  countryside  has  be- 
come so  thickly  settled  as  to  make  a  real  live  bear  an 
object  of  the  utmost;  curiosity. 

The  bear  was  slain  Wednesday  on  the  mountain  be- 
tween Rattling  Run  and  Water  Tank,  in  the  Stony 
Creek  valley.  The  animal  was  seen  by  the  two  men 
near  a  large  rock  and  four  shots  were  fired  at  it  by 
the  elder  Smith,  all  of  them  finding  lodgment  in  the 
body  of  the  shaggy  beast.  The  attack  seemed  to  mad- 
den the  brute  and  he  started  in  the  direction  of  the 
elder  Smith.  Observing  the  danger  his  father  was  in, 
the  son  then  fired  two  shots  in  quick  succession,  both 
of  the  bullets  reaching  the  mark.  Still  the  bear  kept 
on  and  another  shot,  the  seventh  in  all,  was  fired, 
striking  the  animal  in  an  eye,  penetrating  the  brain 
and  bringing  his  career  to  a  close. 

When  the  handsome  animal  was  brought  to  town 
today,  the  greatest  excitement  was  created,  as  the 
body  is  supposed  to  be  that  of  a  bear  that  has  been 
seen  many  times  in  this  vicinity  and  has  often  been 
sought  by  hunters., 

The  bear  weighed  300  pounds.  Old  huntsmen  say 
this  is  the  first  bear  to  be  killed  in  Dauphin  County 
in  more  than  thirty  years. 


JAKE  ZIMMERMAN 


Bears  In  Somerset  County  In 
Years  Past 

By  George  W.  Grove,  Noted  Historian 

John  Lamibert,  better  known  as  Bear  Hans,  was  tlie 
greatest  bea,r  hunter  in  Somerset  County  that  the 
writer  ever  heard  of.  I  remember  of  seeing  him  when 
I  was  a  boy.  He  was  frozen  to  death  about  1858. 
going  home  from  butchering  for  a  man  in  Buckstown. 
He  was  lost  and  froze. 

I  have  been  'told  by  good  men  that  he  killed  as  high 
as  forty  bears  in  one  fall  and  winter;  how  many  'he 
killed  in  his  time  I  cannot  tell.  I  was  told  that  he 
sold  bear  hides  before  he  killed  them,  but  always 
brought  them  in. 

Daniel  Statler  was  another  great  bear  hunter.  He 
killed  the  larges^t  bear  I  know  of,  weighing  over  400 
pounds.  The  writer  knew  him  well.  He  died  in 
1875,  aged  75  years. 

Bears  were  hunted  mostly  by  dogs  and  trapped. 
Sometimes  a  bear  is  still  seen  in  Somerset  County, 
but  not  often. 


89 


Game  Law  Revision  a  Delicate 
Task 

The  interest  that  is  taken  in  hunting  and  the  study 
of  wild  life  in  Pennsylvania  is  manifested  in  the 
variety  of  bills  for  the  revision  of  the  game  laws  that 
has  been  introduced  in  the  Legislature.  There  are 
conflicting  interests  behind  some  of  these  measures, 
and  to  please  some  it  will  be  necessary  tO'  disappoint 
others.  The  lawmakers  should  be  guided,  therefore, 
by  a  purpose  to  effect  the  greatest  good  for  the  great- 
est  number. 

A  PoUer  County  Representative  would  amend  the 
law  protecting  bear  by  providing  that  within  sixty 
days  a f iter  presentation  to  the  Game  Commission 
of  a  petition  bearing  the  signatures  of  200  persons 
engaged  in  agriculture,  s-tock  raising  and  bee  culture, 
the  county  is  to  be  thrown  open  for  bear  /hunting  for 
two  years,  with  no  limit  on  the  number  that  may  be 
killed.  This,  it  is  contended,  by  the  Game  Commis- 
sion, would  pave  the  way  for  extermination  of  bears, 
which  are  one  of  our  game  resources  of  which  we 
are  proudest.  The  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  num- 
ber would  seem  to  demand  that  this  bill  sihould  not 
be  passed.  If  farmers  can  produce  proof  that  bears 
have  killed  their  sheep  or  pigs,  or  robbed  their  bee 
hives,  the  State  might  make  provision,  if  it  should 
see  fit,  to  compensate  them. 


90 


Best  Bear  Story 

Bruin  Tired  of  Holding  Hunter  On  His  Back 

The  best  bear  story  of  the  season  concerns  A.  J. 
Gilfillan  and  Messers  Swanson,  Crawford  and  Thomas, 
employes  of  the  Holmes  &  Gilfillan  plant  and  the  Roy- 
alba  farm,  and  Chas.  Croissant,  a  Game  Warden  and 
a  200  poinid  Black  Bear.  The  bear  was  sighted  in  the 
vicinity  of  Daly  Brook  last  Friday  and  the  above  nam- 
ed party  of  enthusiastic  hunters  on  receipt  of  the  nev/s 
lost  no  time  in  starting  for  the  scene.  Arriving  there 
the  party  deployed  through  the  woods  in  an  effort  to 
round  up  the  bear.  Croissant  took  up  a'  watching  posi- 
tion on  a  vantage  point  offered  by  a  pile  of  brush  and 
the  other  hunters  scattered  through  the  woods.  After 
a  futile  search,  the  hunters  abandoned  the  chase  and 
on  returning,  were  greeted  with  the  sight  of  fresh  bear 
tracks  crossing  their  own  tracks,  indicating  that  the 
bear  had  been  hunting  them  instead  of  them  the  bear. 
It  developed  that  bruin  had  secreted  himself  under  the 
very  brush  pile  upon  which  Mr.  Croissant  took  up  bis 
position  and  evidently  becoming  tired  of  bearing 
Charlie's  weight  on  its  back  had  crawled  out  from  in 
under  and  made  its  get-away,  and  the  hunter  never 
saw  or  heard  the  animal  when  it  departed. — McKean 
Countv  Democrat,  iq20. 


92 


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